lightful
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English
Pronunciation
- enPR: lītʹfo͝ol
- Hyphenation: light‧ful
Etymology 1
From Middle English lightful, lihtful (“luminous, providing enlightenment”), from light, liht (noun) + -ful (“full of (a feeling)”, suffix forming adjectives). See more at light (noun).
Adjective
lightful (comparative more lightful, superlative most lightful)
- (poetic) Full of light; bright.
- a. 1599 (date written), Mary Sidney, “Psalm LVIII”, in The Psalmes of David , London: From the Chiswick Press by C Whittingham, for Robert Triphook, , published 1823, →OCLC, page 101:
- formlesse eyes doe faile / To see the sun, though brought to lightfull land.
- a. 1619 (date written), Du Bartas, “A Divine and True Tragi-comedy; Iob Triumphant in His Triall: Or The Historie of His Heroicall Patience. In a Measured Metaphrase. The Third Book..”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes , London: Robert Young, published 1633, →OCLC, page 470:
- His lightfull Lamp reflected on my head, / Whereby I walkt through Darkneſs
- 1889, A Conan Doyle, Micah Clarke: , London: Longmans, Green, and Co , →OCLC, page 164:
- had a gloomy and surly aspect, but the hall within was lightful and airy
Derived terms
- lightfulness (noun)
Etymology 2
From light (“not weighed down”, adjective) + -ful (“full of, having”, adjective).
Adjective
lightful (comparative more lightful, superlative most lightful)
- Light; cheerful.
Derived terms
- lightfulness (noun)
References
- ^ “lightful, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2018, retrieved 21 November 2019.
- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E Smith, editors (1914), “lightful”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes III (Hoop–O), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.