relume means to rekindle; to relight (literally or figuratively).
Why “relume” is a great word
To restore light, clarity, or brightness to something from which it had faded. From the English prefix re- ("again") combined with (il)lume, an archaic verb meaning to light, ultimately from Latin lūmināre ("to illuminate"), first attested in English 1595–1605. Unlike "rekindle," which suggests the deliberate stoking of fading embers or passions, or "reilluminate," which implies a broad, new intellectual lighting, to relume is to reawaken a specific, prior radiance that had dimmed. It is the slow return of color to a landscape at dawn, the sudden gleam in an old photograph pulled from shadow, or the sputtering wick of a candle coaxed back to flame—a quiet victory against the encroaching dark, restoring not fire, but light’s memory.
Etymology
From re- + (il)lume.
verb
- To rekindle; to relight (literally or figuratively).e.g.“Aratus, who a while relum'd the Soul / Of fondly lingering Liberty in Greece […] .” — 1730, James Thomson, The Seasons, ‘Autumn’
- To make clear or bright again.e.g.“[H]e opened his eyes again; the spreading film retired, and love relumed them—he gave a look—it was never forgotten.” — 1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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