pellucid
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪˈl(j)uːsɪd/
ipa: /pɛ-/
ipa: /pəˈlusɪd/
Forms: form: more pellucid
form: most pellucid
Etymology: The adjective is a learned borrowing from Latin pellūcidus, perlucidus (“transparent, pellucid; very bright; very understandable”), from per- (prefix meaning ‘through; throughout; completely, thoroughly’) + lūcidus (“clear; full of light, bright, shining; (figuratively) easily understood, clear, lucid”) (from lūceō (“to shine; to become visible, show through; (figuratively) to be apparent, conspicuous, or evident”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives)).
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Cognates
* Late Latin pellucidum (“transparent substance”)
* Middle French pellucide (modern French pellucide (“pellucid”))
Senses: examples: text: Blood to the naked Eye appears all red; but by a good Microſcope, vvherein its leſſer parts appear, ſhevvs only ſome fevv Globules of Red, ſvvimming in a pellucid Liquor; and hovv theſe Globules vvould appear, if Glaſſes could be found, that yet could magnifie them 1000, or 10000 times more, is uncertain.
ref: 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of Our Complex Ideas of Substances”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book II, § 11, page 140:
text: This Cryſtal is a pellucid fiſſile Stone, clear as VVater or Cryſtal of the Rock, and vvithout Colour; enduring a red Heat vvithout loſing its tranſparency, and in a very ſtrong Heat calcining vvithout Fuſion.
ref: a. 1728 (date written), Isaac Newton, “[The Third Book of Opticks.] [Qu[estion] 25. Are there not other original Properties of the Rays of Light, besides those already described?]”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. […], 4th edition, London: […] William Innys […], published 1730, →OCLC, page 329:
text: As a stream, clear and bright, becomes foul with weeds, and stagnates by its distant meanderings from its pure and pellucid source,—so the active imagination, the capacious intellect of Douglas, those high and valuable endowments, had, by an undue use of them, been perverted.
ref: 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 308–309:
text: The sea was shining like a sheet of glass, […] and the bright sea-weeds and the brilliant corals shone in the depths of that pellucid water, as we rowed over it, like rare and precious gems.
ref: 1857, Robert Michael Ballantyne, chapter XVI, in The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, published 1859, →OCLC, page 147:
text: You cannot think what figs / My teeth have met in, / What melons icy-cold / Piled on a dish of gold / Too huge for me to hold, / What peaches with a velvet nap, / Pellucid grapes without one seed: […]
ref: 1862, Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; London: Macmillan & Co., […], →OCLC, page 10:
text: The thick vegetation met overhead, interlacing into a natural pergola, and through this tunnel of verdure in a golden twilight flowed the green, pellucid river, beautiful in itself, but marvelous from the strange tints thrown by the vivid light from above filtered and tempered in its fall.
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘The Outlying Pickets of the New World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, pages 119–120:
text: Most of the pool was quite shallow, but under the cliff where the beach was hollowed out it was four or five feet deep. It was to this part that a swimmer would naturally go, for it formed a beautiful pellucid green pool as clear as crystal.
ref: 1926 November 27, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane”, in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published June 1927, →OCLC, page 255:
synonyms: word: clear
word: limpid
word: lucid
word: perspicuous
word: clear
word: clear as crystal
word: crystalline
word: diaphanous
word: glassy
word: hyaline
word: hyaloid
word: limpid
word: lucid
word: pellucid
word: perspicuous
word: see-through
word: serene
word: transparent
word: transpicuous
word: vitreous
antonyms: word: translucent
word: transparent
word: turbid
glosses: Allowing the passage of light; translucent or transparent.
examples: text: Written in spare, pellucid prose, the book reads like a close-to-the-bone memoir.
ref: 1994 November 13, Fritz Lanham, The Houston Chronicle, Houston, Tex.: Houston Chronicle Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: [Y]ou never receive me apart from the grammar that establishes my availability to you. If I treat that grammar as pellucid, then I fail to call attention precisely to that sphere of language that establishes and disestablishes intelligibility, and that would be precisely to thwart my own project as I have described it to you here.
ref: 1999, Judith Butler, “Preface (1999)”, in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon., published 2015, →ISBN, page xxvi:
synonyms: word: crystal clear
word: lucid
word: perspicuous
word: translucent
word: apprehensible
word: clear
word: comprehensible
word: explainable
word: explicable
word: explicatable
word: fathomable
word: graspable
word: illuminable
word: intelligible
word: lucid
word: pellucid
word: perspicuous
word: straightforward
word: tangible
word: understandable
antonyms: word: comprehensible
glosses: Easily understood; clear.
examples: text: Opera star [Giorgio] Tozzi sings with the richness of burnished bronze and [Sharon] Daniels complements him with her pellucid soprano.
ref: 1979 October 22, T. E. Kalem, “Theater: Monopod”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2022:
glosses: Of music or some other sound: not discordant or harsh; clear and pure-sounding.
glosses: Of a person, their mind, etc.: able to think and understand clearly; not confused; clear, sharp.
synonyms: word: apparent
word: arrant
word: undoubted
word: glaring
word: bait
word: blatant
word: clear
word: clear as a bell
word: clear as day
word: clear cut
word: crystal clear
word: cut and dried
word: decided
word: elucidate
word: evident
word: eyely
word: intuitive
word: manifest
word: notable
word: noticeable
word: obvious
word: open-and-shut
word: ostensible
word: palpable
word: patent
word: plain
word: plain as a haystack
word: plain as a pikestaff
word: plain as day
word: plain as Dunstable highway
word: plain as porridge
word: plain as print
word: plain as Salisbury
word: plain as the nose on one's face
word: prima facie
word: res ipsa loquitur
word: straightforward
word: undissembled
antonyms: word: manifest
word: obvious
word: simple
glosses: Easily recognized or seen through; apparent, obvious.
Derived terms: pellucidly
pellucidness
semipellucid
subpellucid
unpellucid
Related terms: elucidate
lucid
pellucidity
zona pellucida