lucent — an adjective meaning “shining” or glowing with light
luciente — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
These words come to us from Latin’s lucere which means “to shine.” When taking a Spanish language course, the vocabulary word “luz” will come up fairly early on.
“Luz” means “light” as in the thing that glows, not the kind of meal you should be eating when on a diet — that “light” is “ligero.”
When pluralized, “luz” becomes “luces” and its connection to “lucent” becomes more obvious with that central “c.” In Spanish, any noun that ends with a “z” changes that “z” to a “c” before adding the plural ending of “es.” Thus, you also see “actrices” for the plural of “actriz” (actress) and “peces” for the plural of “pez” (fish).
“Lucid” also comes from the same Latin root, and its Spanish cognate is “lúcido.” “Lucid” also means “shining” or “bright,” but we more often use it to refer to one’s clarity of thoughts or dreams. It’s a word that doctors throw out when diagnosing elderly people to say that they are or are not “lucid” anymore.
The word “pellucid” means that light can shine through something without being distorted much. It also goes back to that Latin verb for “to shine” and literally means that something “shines through.”
“Translucent” deals with another manner of allowing light to shine through something. That “trans” means “crossing” or “through,” so the “lucent” part then goes through the object. In Spanish, this word is “translúcido” or “translúcida,” depending on the gender of the noun it is describing.
If you “elucidate” something, you make it “lucid,” or clear — you bring light to it, in a figurative sense.
Oddly enough, “Lucifer” means “light-bearing.” While most of us now associate this name with the Devil, seemingly the polar opposite of anything bearing light, the name can also be used to refer to the planet Venus when it appears as the morning star and brings us light.
There are other English words that hearken back to lucere, and I think you can probably think of a few more on your own. If the initial intent behind the word was to bring light to something in some fashion, then look for that Latin word in its etymology.
I hope I’ve been lucid with my explanations here and that there is a lucent glow about you right now as you bask in your newfound wisdom. Ha, ha. Seriously, though, I do hope you are learning a thing or two from these posts.
I am going to limit them to once a week from now on as I concentrate on finishing the first draft and edit of my fifth novel and continue to add to my second newsletter, “Tomes and Topics.” Please check it out here: tomesandtopics.substack.com.
Until next time.
Tammy Marshall
Lucent