verligte means A person with a verlig (enlightened) political attitude. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
VERLIGTE — [Noun] A person with a progressive, enlightened political stance, particularly in the fraught landscape of South African politics. From Afrikaans verligte, derived from verlig ("enlightened"), from Dutch verlichten ("to enlighten"). Unlike "verkrampte" (which clings to reactionary rigidity) or "traditionalist" (which resists change as a matter of principle), a verligte embraces reform as necessity. It is the Afrikaner academic quietly dismantling apartheid-era dogma, the farmer advocating for land reform over generational entitlement, the politician who risks ostracism to acknowledge that progress cannot be built on the bones of the past—a rare figure who understands that enlightenment, once achieved, cannot be unlearned.
noun
- A person with a verlig (enlightened) political attitude.