illustrious
adjectiveattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ɪˈlʌs.tɹɪ.əs//
- United States//ɪˈlʌs.tɹi.əs//
- United States/[-ˈləs-]/
Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
adjective
- 1
Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs!
The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious. / So what? / Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid?
[Marcus] Rashford showed the fearless streak [Gareth] Southgate so admires with his constant willingness to run at Brazil's defence with pace, even demonstrating on occasion footwork that would not have been out of place from members of England's illustrious opposition.
Etymology
From Latin illūstris (“bright, shining; distinguished, prominent, illustrious”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree). Illūstris is derived from illūstrō (“to brighten, illuminate; to make famous or illustrious”), from in- (“in, inside”) + lūstrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lūstrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or *lewh₃- (“to wash”)).
Forms
- comparative
- more illustrious
- superlative
- most illustrious
illustrious · Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
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