Beorhtnes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality of being bright or luminous, a shining radiance that was used in Old English writing
2. Luminous clarity or splendor, the condition of giving off or reflecting light in Old English
3. An Old English noun meaning brightness, the shining or gleaming quality of something lit or radiant

Etymology: Beorhtnes is the Old English ancestor of modern "brightness," and it is built from two parts that are still easy to see. The first is "beorht," meaning bright, shining, or clear, which in Old English could also describe something splendid or fair. The second is the suffix "-nes," which turned an adjective into a noun for a quality, just as "-ness" does today. Old English has many such pairs, so this is a regular formation rather than a rare coinage. "Beorht" is inherited from Germanic, not borrowed, and it has cousins in Old High German "beraht." Over the Middle English period, "-nes" gradually became "-ness," and the modern spelling "brightness" grew out of that change.

Synonyms: brightness, radiance, luminosity, brilliance

Antonyms: dullness, dimness