Definition: Shining brilliantly, resplendent, emitting a brilliant light.

Usage: Today's adjective comes from the verb, effulge "to shine brightly, blindingly." The adverb from the adjective is "effulgently" and the noun is "effulgence." This is the word to use when neither "bright" nor "brilliant" says it all, so use it sparingly and surgically.

Suggested Usage: Today's adjective refers to objects that are brighter than bright, "Les Braine thinks every effulgent object he sees in the sky is a UFO." This sense sometimes slips over to refer to resplendence, "Grace Fuller made an effulgent entrance at the cotillion, draped in a sequin-coated gown held down by every bauble she had ever bought or filched." It can move even further into abstraction: "Einstein's mind was a constant source of effulgent ideas."

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin "effulgens, effulgent-," the present participle of effulgere "to shine out" composed of ex- "out" + fulgere "to shine." This word comes from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- "shine, flash." The initial [bh] is [b] with the puff of air we get pronouncing [p] today (hold your hand in front of your mouth and say "pup"). In initial position, it usually became [f] in Latin, as the same root gave "burn" in English but fornax "oven" in Latin. *Bhel- became beo "white" in Serbian, belyi "white" in Russian, "blanch," "bleach", "blank" and "black" (!), not "white" in English, as words occasionally become their own antonyms, as did "cold" and "scald."