luminary

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English luminarye,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French luminarie (“lamp, lights, lighting”),^[5][6][3][7] later luminaire,^[8][3][9] from Late Latin lūmināre (“light, torch, lamp, heavenly body”), literally that which gives light,^[5][10][3] the neuter of an adjective in -āris,^[10][11] from Latin lūmen (“light”),^[5][6][8][9] which is related to lūceō (“to shine”)^[5][3][2] and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (“light, brightness”).^[5][6] Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow direct borrowing from late Latin lūminārium as well,^[9][12] and Dictionary.com derives the word from medieval Latin lūmināria (“lamp”).^[4] The Anglo-Norman form, recorded from the early 12th century, already had the senses of a celestial light, a lamp and an important person.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figuratively, a source of spiritual or intellectual light: before 1450, in the Coventry Mysteries.^[8] Etymonline also finds this figurative sense, a source of spiritual light or example of holiness, in the mid-15th century.^[5] Barnhart's first record, from before 1449, is glossed instead as a source of light or lamp,^[10] and Etymonline gives lamp or light-giver as the mid-15th-century sense too.^[5]

Semantic evolution

English used the word of literal light only slightly later than of figurative light: an artificial light from 1484 and a natural one, especially the sun or the moon, from 1489, both in Caxton.^[8] In the 17th century the plural could mean illuminations put up for rejoicing,^[8] and before 1639 Wotton used it once as if it meant astrological signs read in a man's face, a passage Johnson quoted.^[8][14] The sense "notable person" is recorded from the 1690s,^[5][10] extending the older figurative use, which could once be used of things as well and now applies only to people.^[8] Johnson (1755) distinguished any body that gives light, anything that gives intelligence, and anyone who instructs mankind, quoting Bentley on "two great luminaries of this island".^[14] Today's usual meaning, a person eminent in a field and an inspiration to others, is the one that comes first in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins,^[2][15] and Collins labels the heavenly body literary.^[15]

Timeline

• before 1450 – a source of spiritual or intellectual light.^[8][5]
• 1484 – an artificial light.^[8]
• 1489 – a natural light-giving body, especially the sun or the moon.^[8][5]
• 1692 – a famous or notable person.^[10][5]
• 1794 – adjective, relating to light.^[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person eminent in a field, who inspires or influences others: Luminaries of the jazz world crowded the reception.^[2][15][7]
2. (literary) A natural source of light, especially the sun or the moon.^[15][8][7]
3. An artificial light; a lamp.^[2][8][7]

Adjective

1. (rare) Of or relating to light.^[5][2][8]

Related words

• illuminate
• illumination
• illuminator
• illumine
• luminescence
• luminescent
• luminosity
• luminous
• lumen
• lucid
• light
• luminaire

Usage notes

The rare adjective has a separate source: the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged form it from the Latin stem lūmin- and the suffix -ary, not from the French noun.^[8][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins