lustrate
English
Etymology
From Latin lustratus (“lustrated”) parsed as a verb via English -ate, from lustrare, from lustrum (“ritual purification”) + o (“forming verbs”), q.v. In reference to imparting luster, further via senses of Middle French lustre, from Old Italian lustro.
Verb
lustrate (third-person singular simple present lustrates, present participle lustrating, simple past and past participle lustrated)
- (transitive) Synonym of purify, to ritually cleanse or renew, particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or (historical) the lustration, quinquennial ritual of the Roman censor to cleanse the city after a census.
- c. 1650, Henry Hammond, Miscellaneous Theological Works..., Vol. 3, Sermon 23, p. 503 (1850 ed.):
- We must purge, and cleanse, and lustrate the whole city.
- 1853, Charles Kingsley, chapter 20, in Hypatia:
- "Well," said Hypatia, more and more listlessly; "it might be more prudent to show them first the fairer and more graceful side of the old Myths... I wish to lustrate them afresh for the service of the gods."
- 1909, Edith Wharton, “An Autumn Sunset”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Poems:
- Mid-zenith hangs the fascinated day
In wind-lustrated hollows crystalline.
- c. 1650, Henry Hammond, Miscellaneous Theological Works..., Vol. 3, Sermon 23, p. 503 (1850 ed.):
- (transitive, intransitive, with 'through') Synonym of pass through, traverse.
- (transitive, obsolete) Synonym of look, look over, survey.
- (transitive, obsolete) Synonym of luster, to impart luster to, to make lustrous.
References
- “lustrate, v.¹.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.
- “† lustrate, v.².”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Anagrams
Italian
Verb
lustrate
- inflection of lustrare:
- second-person plural present indicative
- second-person plural imperative
Latin
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