effulgent

English edit

WOTD – 26 July 2019

Etymology edit

From Latin effulgēns (“flashing, glittering”), present participle of effulgeō (“to shine or gleam forth, flash, glitter”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘out; away’)) + fulgeō (“to flash, gleam, glisten, glitter, shine”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny; white”)).^[1]

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfʌldʒ(ə)nt/, /ɛ-/
Audio (RP) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈfʌld͡ʒənt/
Hyphenation: ef‧fulg‧ent

Adjective edit

effulgent (comparative more effulgent, superlative most effulgent)

(literary, also figuratively) Radiant, resplendent, shining.
Synonyms: (obsolete) profulgent; see also Thesaurus:shining
- 1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, pages 9–10, lines 185–190:
  Thus all day long the full-diſtended clouds / Indulge their genial ſtores, and well-ſhower'd earth / Is deep enrich'd with vegetable life; / Till, in the weſtern ſky, the downward ſun / Looks out, effulgent, from amid the fluſh / Of broken clouds, gay-ſhifting to his beam.
- 1798, H[enry] T[homas] Colebrooke, “XXII. On the Religious Ceremonies of the Hindus, and of the Bráhmens Especially”, in Asiatick Researches: Or Transactions of the Society; Instituted in Bengal, for Enquiring into the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature, of Asia, volume V, Calcutta: Printed and sold at the Honorable [East India] Company’s Press; [a]nd sold at London by P. Elmsly, →OCLC, essay I, page 349:
  That effulgent power, which governs our intellects, is the primitive element of water, the luſtre of gems and other glittering ſubſtances, the favour of trees and herbs, the thinking ſoul of living beings; [...] The ſupreme Brahme, ſo manifeſted, illumines the ſeven worlds; may he unite my ſoul to his own radiance (that is, to his own ſoul, which reſides effulgent in the ſeventh world, or manſion of truth).
- 1856, George Jones, “No. 271. December 30th, 1854: Morning.”, in Observations on the Zodiacal Light, from April 2, 1853, to April 22, 1855, Made Chiefly on Board the United States Steam-Frigate Mississippi, during Her Late Cruise in Eastern Seas, and Her Voyage Homeward: With Conclusions from the Data thus Obtained (Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, […]; III; 33d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Ex. Doc. no. 79), Washington, D.C.: Beverley Tucker, senate printer, →OCLC, page 542:
  I also, this morning, gave attention to the stars as seen through the Zodiacal Light, and found, even to 4^h 30^m, when the effulgent Light below the zigzag lines is very strong, that with the naked eye I could readily make out stars of the 6th magnitude within the effulgent Light; [...]
- 1904 August, May Byron, “The Little Girl”, in The Cornhill Magazine, volume XVII, number 98 (New Series), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 245:
  Margaret, aged six, entered her kindergarten after many days' absence, with so effulgent a face as must kindle curiosity in the dullest.
- 1912 October, Rex [Ellingwood] Beach, “The Golden Girl”, in The Net: A Novel, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers publishers, →OCLC, page 30:
  Except for the faintest tinge of olive, her cheeks were colorless, yet they spoke of perfect health, and shone with that same pale, effulgent glow, like the reflection of a late sun.
- 1925, Samuel A’Court Ashe, “The War Ends”, in History of North Carolina, volume II (From 1783 to 1925), Raleigh, N.C.: Presses of Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, →OCLC, page 1012:
  James Iredell Waddell, a grandson of General Waddell and of General Nash and a descendant of the Moores and Davises, and uniting the best streams of patriotic blood, entered the naval service in 1841. His life was a spotless mirror, bright, effulgent with honor, adorned with virtue and with high attributes, while his person and his noble countenance recalled [William] Shakespeare's lines giving "the world assurance of a man."
- 1971, Gopal Singh, The Religion of the Sikhs, New Delhi: Allied Publishers, published 1987, →ISBN, page 42:
  God is one: about that there is a certain certitude, but He is both Absolute and Related, Immanent and Transcendent. [...] He is affulgent Light. He is Darkness within darkness. He is the Creator and also the destroyer of what He creates. And, then, He re-creates in order to re-destroy.
- 1988 April, Louvan E. Nolting, “Concluding Observations”, in The Soviet View on the State of Technological Innovation in the U.S.S.R. (CIR Staff Paper; no. 38), Washington, D.C.: Center for International Research, U.S. Bureau of the Census, →OCLC, section B (General Comparison of Soviet and Western Opinion on Reasons for Soviet Innovation Shortcomings), pages 113–114:
  Even Western scholars who vouchsafe the Soviet Union a prospect of considerable improvement in innovation performance perceive unpassable systemic barriers that are likely to keep Soviet innovation less effulgent than Western. For example, Joseph Berliner identifies as the final bar; the exemption of Soviet enterprise from the necessity of risk through innovation.
- 2007, Justin Taylor, “Estrellas y Rascacielos”, in Dennis Cooper, editor, Userlands: New Fiction from the Blogging Underground, New York, N.Y.: Little House on the Bowery, Akashic Books, →ISBN, page 288:
  The anarchists were drinking victory shots and making toasts because even though they'd never met with success before they surely knew it when they saw it or it found them. Snapcase, his beard effulgent with spilled drink, had become certain that school was out forever.