resplendeo

Forms

resplendeō (present infinitive resplendēre, perfect active resplenduī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin re- (“back, again”) + splendeō (“to shine”).^[2][1] De Vaan traces splendeō to Proto-Indo-European *splnd(ʰ)-eh₁- (“to be manifest”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is a poetic word,^[4] first found in Virgil:^[5] fulvā resplendent fragmina harēnā, “the fragments glitter on the tawny sand” (Aeneid 12.741).^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is shining with reflected light.^[2][7] Manilius uses it of stars and Hyginus of the sun that still lights the far side of a plain,^[2] and Seneca and Silius Italicus also have it.^[4][7] Seneca applies it figuratively, of people who shine with the light of their ancestors,^[6][7] and Claudian speaks of the glory of Mars shining out.^[4][7]

In Christian Latin the Vulgate uses it of a face shining (Matthew 17:2),^[4] the perfect resplenduit appears in the First Book of Maccabees,^[7] and Ambrose writes of a care for honour that shone out amid the ashes of a ruined homeland.^[7]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of fragments glittering on the sand.^[4][5]
• 4 BC–AD 65 – Seneca uses it figuratively of the light of ancestors.^[6][5]
• 25–101 AD – Silius Italicus uses it.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shine brightly with reflected light, glitter, gleam.^[2][7]
2. (of a heavenly body) To radiate light, shine brightly.^[2]
3. (figurative) To shine out, be resplendent.^[4][6]

Word family

• resplendentia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn