All Clear?

The words evidence and evince can both be used as a transitive verb to mean to indicate or show. So why do we have the two words and what’s the difference and which is the good word for difference situations?


Let’s begin with evince, the less common word. Its definition is “to show plainly, indicate, or make manifest, especially to show that one has (a specified quality, feeling, etc.)” In fact, I have seen it used most in a phrase like “he evinces talent” or “she evinces regret”, as if to manifest a particular quality or ability. What’s interesting about this word is that it originally meant “disprove or confute”, quite a different meaning. But that was in about 1600, and was because when it came to English it was from the French word évincer, which had that meaning. The French got it from the Latin evincere, where it meant conquer, elicit by argument, or prove. It didn’t develop the meaning “to show clearly” until the late 18th century.

Evidence when used as a transitive verb (“it evidences a quality…”) is more general and often used of inanimate or non-human subjects. It came to English about 1300, from the identically spelled Old French word. They got it from the Late Latin word evidentia that means proof or clearness. In the 14th century it added the sense of “grounds for belief” and in the 1660s added the idea of obviousness. It was in the 1600s that it also developed its verb sense that we’re comparing today.

My dictionary has one of those wonderful elucidative paragraphs that differentiates several synonyms for evident (but not evince):

Evident and apparent apply to that which can be readily perceived or easily inferred, but evident implies the existence of external signs [his evident disappointment] and apparent suggests the use of deductive reasoning [it’s apparent he’ll win]; manifest applies to that which is immediately, often intuitively, clear to the understanding; obvious refers to that which is so noticeable or obtrusive that no one can fail to perceive it; palpable applies especially to that which can be perceived through some sense other than that of sight [palpable signs of fever]; clear implies that there is no confusion or obscurity to hinder understanding [clear proof]; plain implies such simplicity or lack of complexity as to be easily perceptible [the plain facts are these].

I used the word elucidate in its adjectival form above. The transitive verb elucidate means to make clear or explain, especially something abstruse (see 11/14/10 blog). We have a choice of etymologies for elucidate, which is counter-elucidative. It could be that it came from a Middle French word élucider, but élucider appeared in Middle French about the same time elucidate appeared in English (the 1500s). So did elucidate come through Middle French or directly from the Late Latin word elucidatus, the past participle of elucidare? Your choice. (And you thought you had no choice, eh?) Elucidare means to make clear, and yet it’s not clear exactly how we got elucidate in English. But then, it’s not something that will keep many people awake at night, either.