From the
A.Word.A.Day mailing list:
aufklarung (OUF-klay-roong) noun
The Enlightenment.
{German : auf, up (from Middle High German uf, from Old High German.) +
Klarung, a making clear, from klaren, to make clear, from Middle High German
klaeren, from klar, clear, from Latin clarus.}
"The idea that a profanity, especially one that was used as more than a
casual expletive, could be used as a - pardon - legitimate verb was to me
something of an Aufklarung, an enlightenment."
Jon Hahn," A Deposit From Mr. Ed Pays Garden Dividends," Seattle Post -
Intelligencer, Oct 26, 1999.
A reader of the mailing list later commented that:
Having received 'aufklarung' or having been 'aufgeklaert' ALWAYS meant, that your parents/elders etc. have told you, not necessarily taught you, the ways of the birds and the bees and how babies were made. I suppose, this is a form of enlightenment, but not necessarily in the way it was presented.