Origin 1
Full definition of lightsome
Adjective
- Emitting or manifesting light; luminous, radiant.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:While in their mothers wombe enclosd they were,
Ere they into the lightsom world were brought,
In fleshly lust were mingled both yfere …. - 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, xlix:This said, the smoky cloud was cleft and torn,
- Which like a veil upon them stretched lay,
- And up to open heav'n forthwith was borne,
- And left the prince in view of lightsome day.
- 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 105:There came a day when he remembered the moment, when he regretted that he had not ridden off into the buoyant midst of these lightsome elements.
- 2006, Goswin (of Bossut.), Martinus Cawley, Send me God:If any find it incredible that Ida be even outwardly so lightsome that she saw clearly in the night, let them answer this question.
- 2009, David Rooney, The wine of certitude:The literal sense of the Greek is: “If therefore thy whole body is lightsome, having no part darksome, thy whole body will be lightsome, as when the lamp lightens thee with its flashing.â€
Origin 2
Adjective
- Upbeat; cheery; light graceful.
- 1983, Raimon Panikkar, The Vedic experience:Reality is lightsome, that is, light and graceful.... Moreover, the play, the lightsome character of reality, would be misunderstood if this dimension were to be severed from what really makes a play a play, ...
- 1999, Thomas Middleton, David M. Bevington, Kathleen McLuskie, Plays on women - Page 69:When I was of your youth, I was lightsome and quick two years before I was married.
