splendor

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman splendur, splendour, or directly from its source Latin splendor, from the verb splendere (to shine).

Pronunciation

Noun

splendor (usually uncountable, plural splendors) (American spelling)

  1. Great light, luster or brilliance.
    • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:
      What tho’ the moon—the white moon
      Shed all the splendour of her noon,
      Her smile is chilly—and her beam,
      In that time of dreariness, will seem
      (So like you gather in your breath)
      A portrait taken after death.
    • 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Rhinoceros got its skin”, in Just So Stories:
      Once upon a time on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental-splendour.
  2. Magnificent appearance, display or grandeur.
    The splendor of the Queen's coronation was without comparison.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
  3. Great fame or glory.

Usage notes

Splendor is the standard spelling in American English. Splendour is correct in modern British and Commonwealth English.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

From splendeō + -or.

Pronunciation

Noun

splendor m (genitive splendōris); third declension

  1. sheen, brightness, brilliance, lustre, splendor
  2. renown, fame

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative splendor splendōrēs
Genitive splendōris splendōrum
Dative splendōrī splendōribus
Accusative splendōrem splendōrēs
Ablative splendōre splendōribus
Vocative splendor splendōrēs

Descendants

References

  • splendor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • splendor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to sully one's fair fame: vitae splendori(em) maculas(is) aspergere

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin splendor.

Noun

splendor oblique singular, f (oblique plural splendors, nominative singular splendor, nominative plural splendors)

  1. splendor (brilliant brightness)

Descendants

References

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin splendor.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsplɛn.dɔr/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛndɔr
  • Syllabification: splen‧dor

Noun

splendor m inan

  1. splendor (magnificent appearance, display or grandeur)
  2. privilege, honor

Declension

Further reading

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