Word List: Scintillant 5-10-2015

 [ I am back working through my prison journal. It is out of order… Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 10/25/2025]

How long since I did my last word list? Today brings more. Scintillant comes from Kate Chopin's The Awakening (Penguin Classics, 1986) XX: 

... He was scintillant with recollections....

Not scintillating but scintillant. That caught my attention. Webster's II New Revised University Dictionary gets consulted - and nothing is found. And with the lockdown, no access to the big Random House dictionary in the law library. So on hold.

sch 

[This shows the limitations on self-education and information in prison. I do not see that I ever did follow up on a definition after the lockdown was lifted. However, free of prison and its limitations, I have the internet, so here are the definitions I found today:

From Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary: that scintillates : sparkling

Now for scintillate from the same source: 

intransitive verb

1

: to emit sparks : spark

2

: to emit quick flashes as if throwing off sparks : sparkle

Imagine it's a cool summer night, the stars scintillate brilliantly in the sky overhead and the campfire blazes away.—

Thomas E. Young

3

: to dazzle or impress with liveliness or wit

The Jay Tarses sitcom, which scintillates with whacked-out wit, was dropped by NBC in 1988 because it was deemed too quirky.—

Lawrence Eisenberg

Mrs. Burnett's discussion of the Orestes leads the way to a new interpretation of Euripides' Apolline solution, a solution which has titillated, puzzled and infuriated generations of scholars. The arguments scintillate, but sometimes are pushed too far.—

Geoffrey Arnott

transitive verb

: to throw off as a spark or as sparkling flashes

scintillate witticisms

scintillator

ˈsin-tə-ˌlā-tər 

noun 

From Dictionary.com: adjective; scintillating; scintillating; sparkling. 

Now for scintillate from the same source: 

verb (used without object)
scintillated, scintillating 

    to emit sparks.

    to sparkle; flash.

    a mind that scintillates with brilliance.

    to twinkle, as the stars.

    Electronics.,  (of a spot of light or image on a radar display) to shift rapidly around a mean position.

    Physics.

        (of the amplitude, phase, or polarization of an electromagnetic wave) to fluctuate in a random manner.

        (of an energetic photon or particle) to produce a flash of light in a phosphor by striking it.

 verb (used with object)
scintillated, scintillating 

    to emit as sparks; flash forth.

I admit that I would have used the verb as an adjective. Learn something everything; it's a good way to know you're not dead.  sch 10/25/2025]