enlightenment

Etymology

It is formed from English enlighten + -ment.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares, especially for the historical senses, German Aufklärung and French éclaircissement;^[2] in the name of the 18th-century movement it is a loan translation of the German word, which means "clarification".^[6][3][5] The verb enlighten, recorded from about 1384, is formed from en- and lighten, after Middle English inlighten, from Old English inlīhtan (“to shine”).^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of bringing someone to greater knowledge or insight, or the resulting state: 1621, in Robert Aylett's Song of Songs.^[2][8] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s,^[3] and Barnhart to 1669.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the first the word was used only figuratively, of intellectual or spiritual light.^[3] In the 19th century it came to name the freeing of human understanding from customary beliefs sanctioned by tradition, especially religious tradition, usually with a capital (1825),^[2] and, as a translation of German Aufklärung, the spirit of independent thought and the rationalism of the 18th-century Continental philosophers (Etymonline dates this to 1865).^[3] The first edition of the OED (1891) still noted that the word was sometimes used for the French philosophers "in the implied charge of shallow and pretentious intellectualism, unreasonable contempt for tradition and authority";^[2] the Enlightenment as the name of the period's dominant European culture is recorded from 1893, in a translation of Windelband's history of philosophy.^[2] In Buddhism the word renders the spiritual awakening that frees a person from the cycle of suffering and rebirth, from 1836.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1621 – the action of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened.^[2][8]
• 1660s – Etymonline's first date for the noun.^[3]
• 1825 – the freeing of understanding from traditional beliefs.^[2]
• 1836 – Buddhism: spiritual awakening, nirvana.^[2]
• 1865 – as a translation of German Aufklärung.^[3]
• 1893 – the Enlightenment, the 18th-century European intellectual movement.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or means of enlightening someone, or the state of being enlightened; greater knowledge or insight: The pamphlet offered little enlightenment on the new rules.^[9][8][2]
2. the Enlightenment: the philosophical movement of 18th-century Europe that stressed reason, individualism and the critical questioning of tradition and authority.^[9][8][2][4]
3. (Buddhism) The awakening to ultimate truth that frees a person from the cycle of rebirth; nirvana.^[9][2]
4. (Hinduism) A state of transcendent divine experience.^[9]

Related words

• enlighten
• lighten
• light

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins