brightsome

English

Etymology

bright +‎ -some

Adjective

brightsome (comparative more brightsome, superlative most brightsome)

1. (archaic) Marked by brightness or brilliance; resplendent in appearance; shining.
   • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act II:

     But rather let the brightsome heavens be dim,
     And nature's beauty choke with stifling clouds,
     Than my fair Abigail should frown on me.

   • 1869, R. D. Blackmore, chapter 45, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor:

     [A]ll the shifts of cloud and sun, all the difference between black death and brightsome liveliness, scarcely may suggest or equal Lorna's transformation.

   • 1922, Thomas Hardy, “The Wood Fire”, in Late Lyrics and Earlier:

     This is a brightsome blaze you've lit good friend, to-night!

   • 2008, Paul S. Sunga, Red Dust, Red Sky‎^[1], →ISBN, page 117:

     The few chairs and the low table had been stripped of paint to reveal the brightsome grain of pine wood.

   • 2010, William Bay, Fun with Strums Mandolin:

     Her hair it was of a brightsome color, [...]

   • 2014, Barbara Kiefer Lewalski, Protestant Poetics and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Lyric:

     “[...] this point, characteristically, the speaker writes himself into the relation: his dull skin requires the “brightsome Colours” of Joseph's coat but more especially of Christ's blood and glory.”

Usage notes

• The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that this is a less definite term than bright, "leaving more to the imagination".

Synonyms

• brilliant, luminous

Derived terms

• brightsomeness

References

• “brightsome”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.