illumine

illumine

See also: illuminé

English

WOTD – 9 July 2022

Etymology

From Middle English illuminen (“to light, light up; to shine; (figuratively) to enlighten spiritually; to make illustrious”) [and other forms],[1] from Old French illuminer (“to light up, illuminate; (figuratively) to enlighten”) (modern French illuminer), from Latin illūmināre,[2] the present active infinitive of illūminō (“to light up, illuminate; to brighten; to adorn; to make conspicuous”), from il- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, within’; intensifying prefix)) + lūminō (“to illuminate; to brighten; (figuratively) to reveal”) (from lūmen (“light; light source; (poetic) brightness; daylight”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“to shine; to see; bright”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪˈl(j)uːmɪn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪˈlumən/
• Rhymes: -uːmɪn
• Hyphenation: il‧lum‧ine

Verb

illumine (third-person singular simple present illumines, present participle illumining, simple past and past participle illumined)

1. Synonym of illuminate
   1. (transitive)
      1. (also figuratively) To shine light on (something).
         • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, OCLC 84758312, [Act I, scene i]:

           Laſt night of al, when yonder ſtarre that's weſtward from the pole, had made his coarſe to illumine that part of heauen. Where now it burnes, Marcellus and myself, The bell then towling one.

         • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 663–666:

           [O]ut-flew / Millions of flaming ſwords, drawn from the thighs / Of mighty Cherubim; the ſudden blaze / Far round illumin'd hell: […]

         • 1789, [Ann Ward Radcliffe], chapter IX, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne. A Highland Story, London: […] T[homas] Hookham […], OCLC 1326198039, page 185:

           The moon ſhone faintly by intervals, through broken clouds upon the waters, illumining the white foam which burſt around, and enlightening the ſcene ſufficiently to render it viſible.

         • 1798, [Thomas Maurice], “Concerning the Invasion of India by Semiramis, Queen of Assyria, as Detailed by Classical Writers; with Introductory Remarks Relative to the History of that Ancient Empire and Persia, as Given in the Poorauns. [Literal Translation of a Hymn to Creeshna, or the Sun, from an Ancient Irish Manuscript.]”, in General Valancey, transl., The History of Hindostan; Its Arts, and Its Sciences, as Connected with the History of the Other Great Empires of Asia, during the Most Ancient Periods of the World. […], volume II, London: […] H. L. Galabin, for the author; and sold by T. Gardiner, […], OCLC 316557022, page 170:

           Thou [Krishna, or the sun] art the being to whom heroes pray in peril of war, nor are their supplications vain when thus they pray, whether it be when thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when in thy meridian splendour, or when thou majestically descendest in the west.

         • 1851, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Golden Legend, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, OCLC 276669, page 28:

           I am like a happy lover / Who illumines life with dreaming!

         • 1890, attributed to [Cassius] Longinus, “Part I”, in H. L. Havell, transl., On the Sublime […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 977367502, pages 2–3:

           Skill in invention, lucid arrangement and disposition of facts, are appreciated not by one passage, or by two, but gradually manifest themselves in the general structure of a work; but a sublime thought, if happily timed, illumines an entire subject with the vividness of a lightning-flash, and exhibits the whole power of the orator in a moment of time.

         • 2012 January 20, Melanie McDonagh, “Where have all the book illustrators gone?”, in The Independent‎, London: Independent News & Media, ISSN 0951-9467, OCLC 750496934, archived from the original on 31 December 2016:

           [T]he possibility that illustrations could actually illumine writing and draw out elements of a narrative doesn’t seem to count for much any more.

      2. (also figuratively) To cause (something) to glow or shine with light.
         • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], OCLC 837166078, verse 81; Shakespeare’s Venus & Adonis: […], 4th edition, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co. […], 1896, OCLC 19803734, page 30:

           And as the bright sun glorifies the sky, / So is her face illumined with her eye; […]

         • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, OCLC 55178895, [Act IV, scene ii]:

           The ſecond property of your excellent ſherris, is the vvarming of the blood, vvhich before (cold & ſetled) left the lyuer vvhite & pale, vvhich is the badge of puſilanimitie and covvardize: but the ſherris vvarmes it, and makes it courſe from the invvards to the partes extreames, it illumineth the face, vvhich as a beakon, giues vvarning to al the reſt of this little kingdom man to arme, […]

         • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter VI, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224, page 133:

           Fanny’s attractions increased—increased two-fold—for the sensibility which beautified her complexion and illumined her countenance, was an attraction in itself.

      3. (figuratively)
         1. To enlighten (someone) spiritually; to induce (someone) to adopt, or believe in the truth of, a religion, religious tenet, etc.
            • 1840, C[hristoph] C[hristian] Sturm, “February XXI. The World, the Mirror of Eternity.”, in Robert Huish, transl., Evening Devotions; or, The Worship of God in Spirit and in Truth for Every Day in the Year. […], London: William Wright […], OCLC 1246689456, page 148:

              Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect, didst thou call to me, my holy and divine teacher, thou Jesus Christ, who illuminedst the spirit world with a light, which was not of this world; […]

         2. To cause (the eyes) to see.
         3. To cause (a person or their face) to show enlightenment, happiness, etc.
         4. (rare) To enlighten (someone) intellectually.
            • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 22–26:

              What in me is dark / Illumine, what is low raiſe and ſupport; / That to the highth of this great Argument / I may aſſert th' Eternal Providence, / And juſtifie the wayes of God to men.

            • 1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Lawyer and the Body-snatcher”, in Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. […], volume II, London: Saunders and Otley, […], OCLC 5014929, part II, page 220:

              This benighted mind, only illumined by a kind of miserable astuteness, and that 'cunning of the belly' which is born of want to engender avarice— […] had a pathos for his lively sympathies and his fresh heart.

         5. (art) To decorate (a page of a manuscript book) with ornamental designs.
            • 1738, [Alexander] Pope, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Thirty Eight. Dialogue II, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], OCLC 224670775, page 9:

              To Cato, Virgil pay'd one honeſt line; / O let my Country's Friends illumin mine!

   2. (intransitive)
      1. To become bright; to light up.
      2. (figuratively)
         1. To enlighten intellectually.
            • 1925 April​, Virginia Woolf, “Notes on an Elizabethan Play”, in The Common Reader, 2nd edition, London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […], published November 1925, OCLC 504885829, page 77:

              To trace the trail of feelings which such crises and calamities might be expected to breed in a woman of ordinary sensibility might have filled volumes. A dramatist, of course, has no volumes to fill. He is forced to contract. Even so, he can illumine; he can reveal enough for us to guess the rest.

         2. Of a person or their face: to show enlightenment, happiness, etc.
            • 1918 March, Rebecca West [pseudonym; Cicily Isabel Fairfield], chapter I, in The Return of the Soldier, 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., OCLC 222017629, page 22:

              "Shell-shock." Our faces did not illumine so she dragged on lamely, "Anyway, he's not well."

Conjugation

Conjugation of illumine

infinitive	(to) illumine
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	illumine	illumined
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular	illumines
plural	illumine
subjunctive	illumine	illumined
imperative	illumine	—
participles	illumining	illumined

Derived terms

• illumined (adjective)
• illumining (adjective, noun)
• unillumined

Translations

synonym of illuminate — see illuminate

References

1. “illūminen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
2. “illumine, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “illumine, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• lighting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• limuline

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French

Verb

illumine

1. inflection of illuminer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative