bright
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: brīt
ipa: /bɹaɪt/
rhymes: -aɪt
Forms: form: brights
Etymology: The adjective is from Middle English bright, from Old English beorht, from Proto-West Germanic *berht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz (“bright”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵ- (“to shine, to gleam, whiten”).
The noun is derived from Middle English bright (“brightness, brilliance; daylight; light”), from bright (adjective): see above.
The English word is cognate with Albanian bardhë (“white”), Dutch brecht (in personal names), Icelandic bjartur (“bright”), Lithuanian brekšta (“to dawn”), Middle Irish brafad (“blink of an eye”), Norwegian bjart (“bright, clear, shining”), Persian برازیدن (barâzidan, “to beautify; to befit”), Northern Luri بڵێز (bełız, “blaze”) Russian бре́зжить (brézžitʹ, “to dawn; to flicker faintly, glimmer; (figuratively) of a hope, thought, etc.: to begin to manifest, emerge”), Sanskrit भ्राजते (bhrājate), Scots bricht (“bright”), Welsh berth (“beautiful, fair, fine”) (obsolete).
Senses: examples: text: Thee Father firſt they ſung Omnipotent, / […] when thou ſhad'ſt / The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud / Drawn round about thee like a radiant Shrine, / Dark with exceſſive bright thy ſkirts appeer, / Yet dazle Heav'n, […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 372 and 377–381:
glosses: Brightness, glow.
glosses: Glory, splendour.
glosses: Something (especially a product intended for sale) that has vivid colours or a lustrous appearance.
examples: text: Brights constitute 60% of American scientists, and a stunning 93% of those scientists good enough to be elected to the elite National Academy of Sciences (equivalent to Fellows of the Royal Society) are brights.
ref: 2003 June 20, Richard Dawkins, “The future looks bright”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2021:
text: Many of us brights have devoted considerable time and energy at some point in our lives to looking at the arguments for and against the existence of God, and many brights continue to pursue these issues, hacking away vigorously at the arguments of believers as if they were trying to refute a rival scientific theory. But not I.
ref: 2006, Daniel C[lement] Dennett, “Breaking Which Spell?”, in Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, part I (Opening Pandora’s Box), section 5 (Religion as a Natural Phenomenon), page 27:
text: [Richard] Dawkins has received appreciative letters from people who were formerly what he derisively calls "faith-heads" who have abandoned their delusions and come over to the side of the brights, the pleasant green pastures where clear-eyed, brave, bold, and supremely brainy atheists graze contentedly.
ref: 2008 April, David Aikman, “The Attack of the Four Horsemen”, in The Delusion of Disbelief: Why the New Atheism is a Threat to Your Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, Carol Stream, Ill.: SaltRiver, Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, page 28:
synonyms: humanist
nonsupernaturalist
antonyms: super
supernaturalist
hyponyms: atheist
glosses: A person with a naturalistic worldview with no mystical or supernatural elements.
qualifier: painting
glosses: An artist's brush used in acrylic and oil painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.