Sunday Word: Aureate

[sallymn]

aureate [awr-ee-it, -eyt]

adjective:
1 of a golden colour or brilliance
2 brilliant; splendid
2 marked by grandiloquent and rhetorical style

Examples:

To trace and record the historical narratives of the progeny of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s courtiers is a Sisyphean task. Yet, Bansal manages to capture the very quintessence of the aureate period of Sikh history with eloquence. (Harsahej Mann, Review: Tracing the History of Punjab’s Nobility, Livewire, May 2022)

Stars swirling in a deep blue night, aureate sunflowers, sun-choked fields of wheat — Vincent van Gogh loved to capture light and all of its transforming properties. (Nina Siegal, Fragile Van Gogh Drawings See the Light, The New York Times, March 2013)

A unique novel from the end of the 19th century that almost redefines the idea of confinement by giving it a metaphysical edge, but Wilde's aureate and disarming prose will take you to places you've never been and make you think about beauty in a new light. (Jez Fielder , Books that spark your senses: 7 escapist novels for the hungry mind , Livewire, September 2021)

Speaking of her gold earrings, you’ll also soon discover that, on the large, Jolie is drawn to pieces made in the aureate metal and rarely strays from the luxurious tint. (Emma Childs, Angelina Jolie’s Timeless Jewelry Staples Are A Lesson In Minimalism, The Zoe Report, October 2021)

Far away some little hills blazed like an aureate bulwark broken off by age and fallen from the earthward rampart of Paradise. And aloof and dark the mountains stared unconcernedly seawards. (Lord Dunsany, 'The Little City')

Caiques carrying merchants to their homes somewhere along the upper shores were burnished with the aureate hue. (Albert Bigelow Paine, The Ship Dwellers)

Here and there the falling golden leaves of a pomegranate made an aureate glow on the red-brown earth. (Mary Stuart Boyd, The Fortunate Isles)

Origin:

early 15c, 'resembling gold, gold-colored,' also figuratively, 'splendid, brilliant,' from Latin aureatus 'decorated with gold,' from aureus 'golden,' from aurum 'gold,' from PIE root aus- 'gold' (source also of Sanskrit ayah 'metal,' Avestan ayo, Latin aes 'brass,' Old English ar 'brass, copper, bronze,' Gothic aiz 'bronze,' Old Lithuanian ausas 'gold'), which is probably related to root aus- 'to shine.' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Aureate is among several adjectives in English pertaining to gold that derive from the Latin name for the metal, aurum. While its relatives auriferous and auric are more likely to appear in scientific contexts to describe substances containing or made from gold (or Au, to use its chemical symbol), aureate has tended to have a more literary allure since it was first used in English in the early 15th century. Over time, the word's use was extended from 'golden' to 'resplendent', and it finally lost some of its luster as it came to mean 'grandiloquent'. (Merriam-Webster)