nitidus, -a, -um – shining
According to Lewis & Short’s Latin Dictionary, nitidus means “shining, glittering, bright, polished, clear” and is the 2553rd most frequently used word. There are many different uses for nitidus, including for sunny days, bright and clear water, white-colored objects, a clean or polished house (Glare and Stray). I thought that an interesting use of this word is for glowing with beauty and youth or smooth and bright hair or overall eloquent appearance. Nitidus can also be used to describe nature – like the healthy sheen of an animal or plant. Now in nitidus is used in the names of a lot of species, for example, Phymatodes nitidus, which is a species of longhorn beetle. In the Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, I read that nitidus comes from the verb niteō which means to be radiant or shine. There are other derivatives from this verb, like nitor (m.) which means brightness or elegance, nitēscere meaning to become bright, and ēnitēre to shine forth (Van).
In the first quotation, Horace uses nitidus to describe a well-conditioned, healthy-looking person in Book 1 of his first Epistulae. In the second quotation, M. Valerius Martialis, in the fourth book of his epigrams, describes a wrestling ring in which the fighters are covered in shining oil. The image shows a painter of Munich name vase of Peleus and Atalanta wrestling. It is an Attic black-figure amphora from 500-490 BC, and it shows what is described in the second quotation.
Quotation 1:
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute uises,
cum ridere uoles, Epicuri de grege porcum.
Hor. Ep. 1, 4, 15 (Horace Epistulae 1 Part 4 Line 15)
Quotation 2:
Prima salutantes atque altera conterit hora,
exercet raucos tertia causidicos,
in quintam uarios extendit Roma labores,
sexta quies lassis, septima finis erit,
sufficit in nonam nitidis octaua palaestris,
imperat extructos frangere nona toros:
Mart. 4, 8, 5 (Martial Epigram Book 4 Part 8 Line 5)
