chatoyant means having a certain optical reflectance effect, which can be likened to the sheen of a spool of silk.
chatoyant is pronounced /ʃəˈtɔɪ.ənt/.
Why “chatoyant” is a great word
Having a changeable, undulating luster, especially a single, shifting band of light across a surface. From French chatoyant, present participle of chatoyer ('to shimmer like a cat's eye'), from chat ('cat'), first recorded in English use 1790–1800. Unlike 'iridescent' (which splinters light into a shifting rainbow) or merely 'lustrous' (which suggests a uniform radiance), chatoyant describes a solitary, mobile streak, a captured sliver of moon. It is the silken band gliding across a polished tiger’s eye, the liquid seam of light in satin-spar gypsum, the momentary gleam along a velvet ribbon—light gathered into a single, watchful gleam, as if the object were not inert but half-awake, and dreaming.
Etymology
From French chatoyant, present participle of chatoyer (“to iridesce, like a cat's eye”), from chat (“cat”, because of the reflective qualities of a cat's eye).
adj
- Having a certain optical reflectance effect, which can be likened to the sheen of a spool of silk.“chatoyant effect”
noun
- A hard stone, such as the cat's-eye, which presents on a polished surface, and in the interior, an undulating or wavy light.
Words closest in meaning
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