coruscate

[prettygoodword]

coruscate - v., to emit or reflect flashes of light, glitter, sparkle; to exhibit sparkling technique or style.


So more like what fairies do than either lightning or lightning bugs. In use since 1700, give or take a couple years, from Latin coruscātus, the past participle of coruscāre, to quiver, flash, from coruscus, quivering, flashing.

---L.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This word, along with susurrus, is one that I see quite frequently in fantasy online.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I blame Lovecraft.

---L.

[alexfiles.livejournal.com]

Donaldson used this word so much in the first Thomas Covenant trilogy that to this day I can't see it without thinking of those books. Since I read them in the late '70s/early '80s, that's quite an accomplishment.