Paul Schleifer

The emphasis is on the second syllable, not the first (/luːˈsɪfərəs/). It’s an adjective, as are all words that are derived from nouns by the addition of the –ous suffix. It’s root noun is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable (/ˈlu sə fər/). This change in the location of stress is common when words in English add certain derivational suffixes. Think of photograph, with stress on the first syllable; the stress moves to the second syllable in photographer and photography, and there is a dual stress in photographic.

Luciferous means 1. Bringing or providing light, and 2. Providing insight or enlightenment. Here’s a quote, found in the OED, from a work on natural history in 1686: “The clammy moisture of Oysters that shines in the dark of a violet colour, comes from luciferous wormes that have their holes in the shells.” But this literal meaning is rare today. The second meaning is a bit more common today: “I had a very luciferous chat with my friend last night and I gained a lot,” though I cannot say that I have heard the word very much in common usage.

The adjective obviously comes from the proper name Lucifer along with adjective-forming suffix –ous. Lucifer appears in Old English as a name for Satan. It comes from Latin Lucifer, meaning “morning star” or “bringer of the light” (light in Latin is lux, lucis [the genitive form] and to bear in Latin is ferre ). Lux comes from PIE  *leuk– “light, brightness,” and ferre comes from PIE *bher- “to carry; to bear children.”

On this day in 1990, just 28 years ago, the German Democratic Republic held its one and only free parliamentary election in its 41-year history and the first free election in that portion in Germany since the 1932 elections. Steven Pinker, in his recent book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, says, “A good rule of thumb is that any country that has the word ‘democratic’ in its official name, like the … the German Democratic Republic (a.k.a. East Germany) isn’t one. And the DDR wasn’t.

In 1989, when a DDR bureaucrat misspoke by saying that, as far as he knew, travel restrictions were lifted between East and West Germany, the East German side was dirty and ugly, fouled by the noxious fumes of Soviet automobiles and the coal burned by East German electricity plants. The architecture was Soviet realism (translation: stark, bare bones, boring, ugly).

In the 30 years since, the East German side has progressed to where it hardly looks different from the West German side at all. Thus we see the difference between real democracy and democracy in name only, the difference between a collectivist society and an individualistic society, the difference between a planned society and a free-market society.

Freedom brings light. Freedom is luciferous.

 

The image is of the Berlin Wall. “In November, 1989, East German students sit atop the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate in front of border guards. The destruction of the once-hated wall signaled the end of a divided Germany.” The photo is at the University of Minnesota Institute of Advanced Studies.