Etymologically
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illumination

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɪˌl(j)umɪˈneɪʃən/[1]
  • US: /ɪˌlumɪˈneɪʃən/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English illuminacioun,[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French illumination, recorded in the 14th century in Oresme,[5][4][6][7] and directly borrowed from Late Latin illūminātiō (“spiritual enlightenment”),[2][4][8][9] which in Classical Latin meant illustriousness or glory.[8] The Latin noun of action is formed from the past participle of illūminō (“to throw light on, light up”),[5][2][4] which in rhetoric also meant to set off or illustrate.[2] The verb is formed from the assimilated prefix in- (“in, into”) and lūmen (“light”), from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, brightness”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Spiritual enlightenment, divine inspiration, which the OED calls the earliest sense in English: in the plural, inspirations or revelations, about 1340 in Richard Rolle, and in the singular in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew (1398).[5] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century in this sense.[2] The Middle English Dictionary also records the knowledge of God intuited by the higher orders of angels, and a vision or intuition.[3]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, a lighting up or supplying of light, is recorded only from 1563,[5][2] two centuries after the spiritual one, and was soon used figuratively (1646).[5] Intellectual enlightenment and learning followed in the 1630s, including the doctrines of the Illuminati.[5][2] From 1691 the plural meant the lights hung out in token of festivity or rejoicing;[5][2] since 1797 the word has also been used of the lighting up of a whole town or building.[5][2] Johnson (1755) gave the act of supplying light, that which gives light, and festal lights as its senses.[10] The decoration of manuscripts with colours, gold and silver is dated by the OED from 1856, in Ruskin, after an obsolete sense of colouring maps or prints in 1678;[5] Etymonline dates the manuscript sense to the 1670s.[2] In optics the word has meant, since 1863, the intensity of the light falling on a surface.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1340 – in the plural, inspirations, revelations.[5]
  • 1398 – spiritual enlightenment.[5]
  • 1563 – a lighting up, a supplying of light.[5][2]
  • 1634 – intellectual enlightenment, learning.[5][2]
  • 1656 – elucidation (rare and obsolete).[5]
  • 1678 – the colouring of maps or prints (obsolete).[5]
  • 1691 – in the plural, festive lights.[5][2]
  • 1797 – the festive lighting up of a building or town.[5]
  • 1856 – the decoration of manuscripts with colours and gold.[5]
  • 1863 – in optics, the intensity of light falling on a surface.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of lighting something up, or the state of being lit: The illumination of the stage came from a single lamp.[11][4][5]
  2. A source of light.[11]
  3. (chiefly British, often plural) Lights, especially coloured ones, used to decorate streets, parks or buildings.[11][5]
  4. Spiritual or intellectual enlightenment; insight or understanding.[11][4][5]
  5. The act of making something understood; clarification.[11]
  6. Decoration in colours, gold or silver on a manuscript or printed work; also, one of the designs so used.[11][4][5]
  7. (physics) Illuminance, the intensity of light falling on a surface.[11][5]

Word family

  • illuminational
  • reillumination
  • nonillumination
  • preillumination
  • transillumination

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins