heiligenschein means An optical phenomenon which creates a bright spot around the shadow of the viewer's head, when the surface on which the shadow falls has special optical characteristics (as with dewy grass). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
Why this word is great
HEILIGENSCHEIN — [Noun] An optical phenomenon producing a bright, colorless aureole around the shadow of an observer’s head, most distinct on dew-beaded grass or fine-fibered surfaces. Borrowed from German Heiligenschein, from heiliger ("holy, saintly") and Schein ("shine, light"). Unlike a halo, which is a symbolic nimbus in art, or a glory, which manifests as concentric, colored rings on mist, the heiligenschein is a personal, luminous blankness—a private sun. It is the ghostly radiance crowning your own elongated shadow at dawn, the backscattered light from a million dew-beads acting as microscopic lenses, the silent answer to a glance backward that finds your silhouette unexpectedly hallowed. We wander the world trailing a darkness only we are equipped to illuminate.
noun
- An optical phenomenon which creates a bright spot around the shadow of the viewer's head, when the surface on which the shadow falls has special optical characteristics (as with dewy grass).