pellucid

comparative more pellucid · superlative most pellucid

1. literaryAllowing the passage of light; translucent or transparent.

   The sea was shining like a sheet of glass, […] and the bright sea-weeds and the brilliant corals shone in the depths of that pellucid water, as we rowed over it, like rare and precious gems.

   1857, Robert Michael Ballantyne, chapter XVI, in The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, published 1859, →OCLC, page 147

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   Blood to the naked Eye appears all red; but by a good Microſcope, vvherein its leſſer parts appear, ſhevvs only ſome fevv Globules of Red, ſvvimming in a pellucid Liquor; and hovv theſe Globules vvould appear, if Glaſſes could be found, that yet could magnifie them 1000, or 10000 times more, is uncertain.

   1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of Our Complex Ideas of Substances”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book II, § 11, page 140

   This Cryſtal is a pellucid fiſſile Stone, clear as VVater or Cryſtal of the Rock, and vvithout Colour; enduring a red Heat vvithout loſing its tranſparency, and in a very ſtrong Heat calcining vvithout Fuſion.

   a. 1728 (date written), Isaac Newton, “[The Third Book of Opticks.] [Qu[estion] 25. Are there not other original Properties of the Rays of Light, besides those already described?]”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. […], 4th edition, London: […] William Innys […], published 1730, →OCLC, page 329

   As a stream, clear and bright, becomes foul with weeds, and stagnates by its distant meanderings from its pure and pellucid source,—so the active imagination, the capacious intellect of Douglas, those high and valuable endowments, had, by an undue use of them, been perverted.

   1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 308–309

   You cannot think what figs / My teeth have met in, / What melons icy-cold / Piled on a dish of gold / Too huge for me to hold, / What peaches with a velvet nap, / Pellucid grapes without one seed: […]

   1862, Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market”, in Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; London: Macmillan & Co., […], →OCLC, page 10

   The thick vegetation met overhead, interlacing into a natural pergola, and through this tunnel of verdure in a golden twilight flowed the green, pellucid river, beautiful in itself, but marvelous from the strange tints thrown by the vivid light from above filtered and tempered in its fall.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘The Outlying Pickets of the New World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, pages 119–120

   Synonyms: clear, limpid, lucid, perspicuous, clear, clear as crystal, crystalline, diaphanous · Antonyms: adiaphanous, nontransparent, opacous, opacular, opaque, thick

2. figurativelyliteraryEasily understood; clear.

   Written in spare, pellucid prose, the book reads like a close-to-the-bone memoir.

   1994 November 13, Fritz Lanham, The Houston Chronicle, Houston, Tex.: Houston Chronicle Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC

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   [Y]ou never receive me apart from the grammar that establishes my availability to you. If I treat that grammar as pellucid, then I fail to call attention precisely to that sphere of language that establishes and disestablishes intelligibility, and that would be precisely to thwart my own project as I have described it to you here.

   1999, Judith Butler, “Preface (1999)”, in Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon., published 2015, →ISBN, page xxvi

   Synonyms: crystal clear, lucid, perspicuous, translucent, apprehensible, clear, limpid, comprehensible · Antonyms: abstruse, Chinese, dense, enigmatic, fathomless, bottomless, Greek, inapprehensible

3. figurativelyliteraryOf music or some other sound: not discordant or harsh; clear and pure-sounding.

   Opera star [Giorgio] Tozzi sings with the richness of burnished bronze and [Sharon] Daniels complements him with her pellucid soprano.

   1979 October 22, T. E. Kalem, “Theater: Monopod”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Sep 2022

4. figurativelyliteraryOf a person, their mind, etc.: able to think and understand clearly; not confused; clear, sharp.
5. archaicfigurativelyliteraryEasily recognized or seen through; apparent, obvious.

   Synonyms: apparent, arrant, undoubted, glaring, bait, blatant, clear, clear as a bell · Antonyms: subtle, tricky, nice, delicate, knotty

plural pellucids

1. literaryobsoleterareSomething which allows the passage of light; a translucent or transparent object.

   The true Aſtroites, vvhich in the ſun-ſhine throvvs out a briſk light radiating from one certain point, belongs to the claſs of Pellucids.

   [1735?], Herman Boerhaave, “Being a Delineation of the Theory. [Of Stones.]”, in [anonymous], transl., Elements of Chemistry. Being the Annual Lectures of Hermann Boerhaave, M.D. […], volume I, London: […] J. Clarke […], and S. Austen […]; and sold by J. Roberts […], →OCLC, page 33

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   A Pellucid is not ſeen, but percieved^([sic]) by the privation of Colour. So vve ſee not Air in Air, VVater in VVater, Glaſs in Glaſs, and every Pellucid in an equal Pellucid; and becauſe vve knovv they are not coloured, vve count them to be diaphanous, viz. that may be ſeen, or ſhone thorough.

   1729, [Johann Jacob Hainlin], “Of the Vision of Pellucidity or Shining through”, in Venterus Mandey, transl., Synopsis Mathematica Universalis: Or, A Brief System of Mathematics, […], [3rd] edition, London: […] A. Ward, […], →OCLC, paragraph 1, page 686