splendor
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman splendur, splendour, or directly from its source Latin splendor, from the verb splendere (“to shine”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈsplɛndə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsplɛndɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)
Noun
splendor (usually uncountable, plural splendors) (American spelling)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
magnificent appearance
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Anagrams
Latin
Etymology
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈspɫɛn.dɔr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈsplɛn̪.d̪or]
Noun
splendor m (genitive splendōris); third declension
Declension
Third-declension noun.
| 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[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- to sully one's fair fame: vitae splendori(em) maculas(is) aspergere
- to sully one's fair fame: vitae splendori(em) maculas(is) aspergere
Old French
Alternative forms
- esplendor
- esplendur
- splandor
- splendur
Etymology
Noun
splendor oblique singular, f (oblique plural splendors, nominative singular splendor, nominative plural splendors)
- splendor (brilliant brightness)
Descendants
References
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (splendor)
Polish
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin splendor.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsplɛn.dɔr/
Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -ɛndɔr
- Syllabification: splen‧dor
Noun
splendor m inan
Declension
Declension of splendor
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | splendor | splendory |
| genitive | splendoru | splendorów |
| dative | splendorowi | splendorom |
| accusative | splendor | splendory |
| instrumental | splendorem | splendorami |
| locative | splendorze | splendorach |
| vocative | splendorze | splendory |
Further reading
- splendor in Polish dictionaries at PWN