Analyzing a New Word: "Eludicate"

“It is the mission of the twentieth century to elucidate the irrational.”

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty

I keep talking to my Reading kids about the USEFULNESS of understanding prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Of how you might not know a word (you might not know MANY words. English is like an obsessed fanboy with words: you gotta collect the whole set), but you can at least piece together and idea from the bits of the context.

Take the above quote. I found it by briefly browsing Dictionary.com’s “give me a random quote” section, and realized that I’m not entirely sure what Mr. Merleau-Ponty means. “The irrational” isn’t too difficult, as he’s either talking about irrational thoughts or irrational people. Maybe both, given the vagueness of his substantive adjective. “Elucidate,” however, is not a word I’ve come across often enough to know. So I had a moment of “wha-?” confusion and was about to hit the next button, when I decided to think about it for a moment.

Let’s break it down.

Elucidate: The first thing I notice is luc, usually a root word for “light”. Next is the e-, likely from the Latin ex, meaning “from” or “out”. That –ate ending means it’s a verb.

Five, ten seconds of actually blinking at the word and not just blitzing past it means that I think he’s talking about bringing the irrational out into the light. I’ll look it up, later, to see if I’m right.

[Edit, end of the day]

YUP.  Or close enough. Elucidate, v. To make something clear, explain. Mr. Merleau-Ponty wants to make the irrational clear, or to explain the irrational. Irrational more likely stands for “irrational things/thoughts,” in that light.