luculent was our Word of the Day on 02/05/2017. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of luculent in a Sentence
the district attorney's brilliant, luculent summation sealed the case for the prosecution
Did You Know?
To shed light on the meaning of "luculent," one need only look at its root - the Latin noun lux, meaning "light." The English word first appeared in the 15th century with the meaning "brilliant" or "shining," as in "a luculent flame." By the mid-16th century, the "clear in thought or expression" sense had begun to shine, and by that century's end another sense was flickering with the meaning "illustrious" or "resplendent" (as in Ben Jonson's 1599 description of a "most debonair and luculent lady"). Both the "illustrious" and the "emitting light" sense have fallen out of use, and even the "clear" sense is now rare. (When it does appear, it is typically in humorous contexts in which the writer is intentionally choosing obscure words.) Today's writers seem to prefer another "lux" descendant with a similar meaning: "lucid."
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