Obs. Forms: 4 cleerte, 4–5 clerte, clerete, cleerete. [ME. clerté, cleerté, variant of clarté, a. OF. clarté, earlier clartet (= Pr. clartat):—L. clāritāt-em clearness, f. clār-us clear. The vowel-change was due to assimilation to the adj. cler, cleer, CLEAR, and may have begun in Anglo-Fr. In 16–17th c. Fr., clarté was similarly made clairté, after the adj. clair. Cf. CLARITY.]

1

  Clearness, brightness, luster; glory, renown.

2

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter xlii[i]. 5. Þou makis myrk wiþ þi sarynes þe clerte of my ioy.

3

1382.  Wyclif, Rev. xxi. 23. The cleerte [1388 clerete] of God shal liȝten it.

4

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 2052. Þe son on þe heuen Kest away his clerete.

5

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom., v. 12 (Add. MS.). There the sonne shyneth in his clerte.

6

c. 1520.  Wyse Chylde & Emp. Adrian (W. de W.), (1860), 10. The emperour demaunded what god made fyrste. And the chylde answered hym lyght and clerte.

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