2 March 2014

resplendent

[ri-splen-duhnt]

adjective

– shining brilliantly; gleaming; splendid: troops resplendent in white uniforms; resplendent virtues.

Best use of the word ‘resplendent’ in a movie:

Buffalo Soldiers, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Ed Harris.

SPC Ray Elwood (reading a letter he wrote for the Colonel to sign): ‘I regret the death of your son immensely. There was nobody in the battalion I would have trusted more with my life. In him were resplendent the virtues of honor and loyalty. He fell off the rooftop while making technical repairs to the antennae that guard against the enemy’.

Colonel Berman: ‘You kept this one short’.

Elwood: ‘I thought it best not to get lost in detail, sir’.

Berman: ‘I liked the bit about trusting him with my life’.

Elwood: ‘It’s a new angle, sir.

Berman: ‘Here’s something though. “Resplendent”. That’s not a good word to describe a soldier. What about “contained”? In him were contained the virtues of honour and loyalty’

Elwood: ‘That’s much better. – Oh, much better, sir’.

Berman: Don’t let the word ‘resplendent’ leave this base.

Elwood: ‘Yes, sir’.

—

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin resplendent- (stem of resplendēns ), present participle of resplendēre to shine brightly, equivalent to re- re- + splend ( ēre ) shine (see splendor) + -ent- -ent

Related forms
re·splend·ent·ly, adverb
self-re·splend·ent, adjective
un·re·splend·ent, adjective
un·re·splend·ent·ly, adverb

Synonyms
radiant; dazzling, gorgeous, magnificent.

Anagram

spent lender
nerds let pen

Today’s aphorism

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

– Theodore Seuss Geisel, (Dr Seuss)

On this day

2 March 1904 – birth of Theodore Seuss Geisel, (Dr Seuss), children’s author. Died 24 September 1991.

2 March 1917 – Russian Czar Nicholas II is forced to abdicated following the Bloody Sunday massacres in which palace guards opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing many of them. His abdication brought an end to 300 years of rule by the Romanov dynasty.

2 March 1969 – The Concorde, the world’s first supersonic passenger jet, makes its maiden flight.