bright

Meanings

Adjective

• Emitting much light; visually dazzling; luminous, lucent, radiant.
• Of light: brilliant, intense.
• Of an object, surface, etc.: reflecting much light; having a high lustre; gleaming, shiny.
• Of a place: not dark; well-lit.
• Of climate or weather: not cloudy or gloomy; fair; also, of a period of time, the sky, etc.: characterized by much sunshine and good weather.
• Of a metal object or surface: lacking any protective coating or surface treatment for the prevention of corrosion.

Noun

• Something (especially a product intended for sale) that has vivid colours or a lustrous appearance.
• A person with a naturalistic worldview with no mystical or supernatural elements.
• An artist's brush used in acrylic and oil painting with a long ferrule and a flat, somewhat tapering bristle head.

Adverb

• In a bright manner; brightly, glowingly, luminously, lustrously.

Verb

• Often followed by up: to cast light on (someone or something); to brighten, to illuminate.
• Often followed by up: to cause (someone or something) to be bright (in various senses); to brighten; specifically, to make (someone or something) energetic, or happy and optimistic.
• Often followed by up: to become bright (in various senses); to brighten.

Origin

• The adjective is derived from Middle English bright, from Old English bryht, breht , a metathetic variant of byrht , beorht , berht from Proto-West Germanic *berht, from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerHǵ-.
• The noun is derived from Middle English bright, from bright: see above.
• The English word is cognate with Albanian bardhë, Dutch brecht , Icelandic bjartur, Lithuanian brekšta, Middle Irish brafad, Norwegian bjart, Persian برازیدن, Russian бре́зжить, Sanskrit भ्राजते, Scots bricht, Welsh berth .
• From Middle English brighte, from Old English breohte, beorhte , ultimately from Proto-Germanic *berhtaz; see further at etymology 1.
• . Later uses of the word are probably also derived from the adjective.