'clarify' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'clarificare,' where 'clarus' meant 'clear' and 'facere' (via the suffix '-ficare') meant 'to make'.

'clarify' changed from Old French 'clarifier' (and Anglo-Norman) and entered Middle English in forms such as 'clarifien', eventually becoming the modern English word 'clarify'.

Initially, it meant 'to make clear' or 'to render bright/clear', and over time it evolved into the current primary meaning of 'to make (something) clear or understandable' (while retaining the secondary, culinary sense of removing impurities).