auroral

English

Etymology

From aurora +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːˈɹɔəɹəl/, /ɔːˈɹɔːɹəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɔˈɹɔɹəl/, /əˈɹɔɹəl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəl
• Hyphenation: au‧ror‧al

Adjective

auroral (comparative more auroral, superlative most auroral)

1. Pertaining to the dawn; dawning, eastern, like a new beginning.

   Synonyms: aurorean, dawnlike, dilucular, eoan

   • 1684, Francis Bampfield, Miqra ̕qadōsh […] A Grammatical Opening of Some Hebrew Words and Phrases‎^[1], London: John Lawrence, page 36:

     This first created light is properly the auroral light.

   • 1902, William James, “Lectures 11, 12 and 13”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, pages 266–267:

     This auroral openness and uplift gives to all creative ideal levels a bright and caroling quality, which is nowhere more marked than where the controlling emotion is religious.

   • 1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

     Sunsets were redder and more intense; dawns were whiter and more auroral.

   • 1958, Jean Stafford, “The Children’s Game”, in The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford‎^[2], New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 1969, pages 25–26:

     Hugh kissed her and Abby felt as young and tremulous as a schoolgirl. But she was not demanding and she was not headlong and she counseled herself to look on this tenuous, auroral experience as one that would last only so long as she remained in England […]

2. Rosy in colour.

   Synonyms: blushing, roseate

   • 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Student’s Tale”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn‎^[3], Boston: Ticknor and Fields, page 38:

     Her cheeks suffused with an auroral blush,

3. Pertaining to the aurora borealis or aurora australis.
   • 1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 10, in The Return of the Native‎^[4], volume 1, London: Smith, Elder, page 194:

     The creature brought within him an amplitude of Northern knowledge. Glacial catastrophes, snow-storm episodes, glittering auroral effects, Polaris in the zenith, Franklin underfoot,—the category of his commonplaces was wonderful.

Derived terms

• aurorally
• subauroral
• transauroral

 

Further reading

• “auroral”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /auɾoˈɾal/ [au̯.ɾoˈɾal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: au‧ro‧ral

Adjective

auroral m or f (masculine and feminine plural aurorales)

1. auroral

Related terms

• aurora

 

Further reading

• “auroral”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28