Pronounced: PUHR-lizh (alt: PURH-lazh), noun
Notes: Some may know the meaning of this word, but I didn’t
Yesterday’s word
The word lambent means
- playing lightly on or over a surface; flickering
- softly bright o radiant
- marked by lightness or brilliance especially of expression
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
In the Bible, there is a pretty well-known passage in which Elijah confronts the false prophets of Baal on mount Carmel; the prophets of Baal would build an altar and put a sacrifice upon it, and then pray to their god to burn the sacrifice. Elijah would do the same. To shorten the story, Elijah won: fire came down and burned up the sacrifice on the altar he had built. In the Authorized Version, the fire is described as “licking up” some of the material. I have read elsewhere about fire “licking up” paper or wood. All of this is relevant because our word came from the Latin word lambens, which is the present participle of the Latin verb lambere (to lick).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 