éclaircissement

American  

[ey-kler-sees-mahn] / eɪ klɛr sisˈmɑ̃ /

noun

French.

éclaircissements plural

1. clarification; explanation.

2. (initial capital letter) the Enlightenment.

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• éclaircissements
  plural

Explanation

Eclaircissement is clarifying something that initially seemed impossible to understand. Once your teacher sits down and patiently explains how to solve an equation, an eclaircissement can finally take place. When something obscure or incomprehensible is cleared up for you, that's eclaircissement. It's a bit like enlightenment, producing a significant change in the way you perceive or understand. You might experience an eclaircissement about your mysterious and cranky neighbor when you see him tenderly caring for his pet pigeons; you understand him more clearly. The French éclaircissement comes from the verb éclaircir, "to clear up," and a Latin root meaning "clear."

Example Sentences

Now the coincidence of this meeting jolts him into an éclaircissement: "You're slow," said Loki, "but you get there in the end."

From The Guardian • Aug. 19, 2011

A continuance of Court interviews and gossip, with the garrulity of Nemours himself and the Vidame, as well as the dropping of a letter by the latter, brings a complete éclaircissement nearer and nearer.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by Saintsbury, George

In brief, there ensued upon the éclaircissement much storm on one side, much grief on the other, and keen pain to all,—to none more than to Everett.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 05, No. 28, February, 1860 by Various

They had come within a single step of an éclaircissement, and when but another movement would have flooded their souls with light, some malignant influence had seized them by the throats.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. by Various

When the éclaircissement comes, it appears to me—as Mr. Carlyle said of Loyola that he ought to have consented to be damned—that Marius ought to have consented at least to be kicked.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George