Lustrating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To purify or cleanse a person or place through ritual actions
2. to carry out a ceremonial process of purification for spiritual sake
3. to perform a ceremonial cleansing that signifies renewal and restoration

Etymology: "Lustrating" is the present participle of "lustrate," and the verb's story begins with a Roman ritual. The Latin "lustrum" meant a ritual purification, and the Romans held a ceremony of that name to cleanse the people, the army, or the city, typically at the close of a census period. From "lustrum" came the verb "lustrare," which the Romans used for purifying a place or person through such rites, and it passed into English as a learned formation from the Latin past participle "lustratus." The verb has a second, unrelated-seeming path. The Latin "lustrare" also gave a sense of making something bright, and that meaning came into English through the idea of illuminating or imparting luster, shaped by Middle French "lustre" and the Old Italian "lustro." So two senses of a single Latin root, purification and brightness, ended up in one English verb family, with the ritual sense being the older one behind this particular word.

Synonyms: purifying, cleansing