Etymograph

English

splendor

Splendor comes from Latin splendor ‘sheen, brightness, brilliance, luster, splendor’, from splendeō ‘to shine’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spln̥d-eh₁- ‘to be manifest’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spln̥d-eh₁-‘to be manifest’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsplendeō‘to shine’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsplendor‘sheen, brightness, brilliance, luster, splendor’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400splendur
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1829splendor

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spln̥d-eh₁-‘to be manifest’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsplendeō‘to shine’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsplendor‘sheen, brightness, brilliance, luster, splendor’
  4. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400splendur
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1829splendor

Earliest quotation: 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, Tamerlane: “What tho’ the moon—the white moon Shed all the…”

Linked words

through Latin splendeō ‘to shine’

resplendent, 3 more

Today it means

noun Great light, luster or brilliance.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *spln̥d-eh₁- / splendor