Literary notes about scintillant (AI summary)
Literary authors employ "scintillant" to evoke a vivid and transient brilliance that can describe both the natural world and the nuances of human emotion. It often illustrates physical phenomena—a dewy field shimmering at sunrise ([1]), starlight flickering in the vast night sky ([2], [3]), or clouds reflecting a radiant blue expanse ([4], [5]). At the same time, the word imparts a metaphorical luster to character and wit, whether in the glistening tears of a poignant moment ([6]) or the sharp, lively humor of a spirited dialogue ([7], [8]). Even in depictions of dramatic events and ethereal presences, "scintillant" encapsulates a sense of luminous energy that is both fleeting and intensely expressive ([9], [10], [11]).
- I went down into the garden somewhere about the hour of sunrise, through the wet grass that was all scintillant with dew.
— from The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina, in the state of Piacenza by Rafael Sabatini - How should the pure, pale moon dispute the sun; Or the innumerable company Of scintillant stars, though banded all as one?
— from A Few More Verses by Susan Coolidge - We could just see the parallelogram of Orion, with red Betelguese at one corner, and across from it Rigel, scintillant like a blue diamond.
— from Out Around Rigel by Robert H. Wilson - Great, heavy, fantastic-shaped clouds, pearl-white with pearl-grey shadows, piled themselves up against the scintillant dark blue of the sky.
— from My Friend Prospero by Henry Harland - Great, heavy, fantastic-shaped clouds, pearl-white with pearl-gray shadows, piled themselves up against the scintillant dark blue of the sky.
— from Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. (Stratton Duluth) Brooks - He remembered her as he had first seen her, lifting her head from her outstretched arms, her eyes scintillant with tears.
— from Phases of an Inferior Planet by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow - For scintillant wit and unflagging good humour, read his essays on the Teeth, the Hair and the Stomach.
— from When Winter Comes to Main Street by Grant M. (Grant Martin) Overton - NICOLLE said of a scintillant wit, "He vanquishes me in the drawing-room, but surrenders to me at discretion on the stairs."
— from Literary Character of Men of GeniusDrawn from Their Own Feelings and Confessions by Isaac Disraeli - Daunt had seen many such affairs where the blending of colors and sounds, the scintillant shifting of forms, had been but a maze.
— from The Kingdom of Slender Swords by Hallie Erminie Rives - To him there was in it the "scintillant iron," "the strong arm, ruddy at times with the tongues of promethean fire."
— from Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Paul Kauvar; or, Anarchy by Steele MacKaye - God’s air, the Allfather’s air, scintillant circumambient cessile air.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce
