Word of the Day: lambent
Lambent (adjective) LAM-bunt
Definition
1 : playing lightly on or over a surface : flickering
2 : softly bright or radiant
3 : marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression
Examples
“It’s an early May morning and the air is cool and still and filled with lambent light.” — Christopher Norment, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 4 May 2015
“There’s nothing like the swell of a powerful pipe organ in the right room. You can feel the lowest pedal notes in your stomach, or the lambent whisper of the tiniest pipes, with their delicate, shimmering sound.” — T. R. Goldman, The Washington Post, 31 July 2016
Did You Know?
Fire is frequently associated with lapping or licking imagery: flames are often described as “tongues” that “lick.” Lambent, which first appeared in English in the 17th century, is a part of this tradition, coming from lambens, the present participle of the Latin verb lambere, meaning “to lick.” In its earliest uses, lambent meant “playing lightly over a surface,” “gliding over,” or “flickering.” These uses were usually applied to flames or light, and by way of that association, the term eventually came to describe things with a radiant or brilliant glow, as Alexander Pope used it in his 1717 poem “Eloisa to Abelard”: “Those smiling eyes, attemp’ring ev’ry ray, Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day.”
My Take
Whoo hoo! As soon as I saw today’s word and its definition, I knew just what two images I would use. I already had them in my inventory. Of course, I searched for others, just in case. So, I hope you like my selections. One, of course, can only be seen by Tweeting this post from one of the Twitter buttons on my page.
I found so many relates to the word, that once again, I had to filter my selections. After all, I am not publishing a photo gallery, just a commentary about a term that is part of the English language.
Feel free to travel the same path as I did in researching the word. I found a particularly interesting piece of artwork that had me spellbound. I found an MP4 of the perfect representation of the word but at 8+mb in size, a bit too daunting for this article. Once again, I found several companies and products incorporating the word. Since I felt one was interestingly enough without promoting a company, I included it in today’s article.
When I think of the word, one of the first things that came to mind was my first book, ‘The Taste of Honey.’ Yep, I’m back to that. Why not? There is a relate to the word in the book, which you’ll have to read if you want to find out. The cover photo is a hint. ‘The Taste of Honey’ is available right here on my website, or at Amazon.com, BN.com or your favorite eBook retailer. It is also available in paperback from Createspace.com.
“Light playing softly over her skin, marked by lightness and brilliance, her lambert expression depicted the heat of arousal building in her lips.” Sounds to me like an erotica novel. Shall I go on?
I had fun looking for images related to this word. I hope you like the ones I chose, as well as the sexy bonus pic you will get if you share this post via Twitter.
I love learning the different contexts of these words of the day. Don’t you? Please share your comments. I’m sure we would all like to read them.
Have a great day.
Brought to you by Merriam-Webster, Word of the Day.
