different between scintillating vs trenchant

English

Etymology

scintillate +? -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?nt??le?t??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?nt??le?t??/
• Hyphenation: scin?til?lat?ing

Verb

scintillating

1. present participle of scintillate.

Adjective

scintillating (comparative more scintillating, superlative most scintillating)

1. That scintillates with brief flashes of light; sparkling.
   • 1994, Edward St Aubyn, Bad News, Picador 2006, page 147:

     On the scintillating water yellow and blue boats bobbed up and down.

   • 2012 October 13, quoting Nguyen Chi Thien, “Nguyen Chi Thien: Nguyen Chi Thien, a Vietnamese poet, died on October 2nd, aged 73”, in The Economist^[1], archived from the original on 13 October 2012:

     They sank me into the ocean / Wishing me to remain in the depths. / I became a deep sea diver / And came up covered with scintillating pearls.

2. Brilliantly or impressively clever, exciting, amusing or witty.
   • 1864, Edgar Allan Poe, The Literati of New York - No. II - Anna Cora Mowatt:

     Her sketches and tales may be said to be cleverly written. They are lively, easy, conventional, scintillating with a species of sarcastic wit, which might be termed good were it in any respect original.

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• trenchaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenchant, the present participle of trenchier (“to cut”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??n??nt/

Adjective

trenchant (comparative more trenchant, superlative most trenchant)

1. (obsolete) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:

     The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, / For want of fighting was grown rusty, / And ate into itself, for lack / Of somebody to hew and hack.

2. (figuratively) Keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe.
   • 2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940

     His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.

Translations

Middle French

Etymology

Old French trenchant.

Noun

trenchant m or f (plural trenchans)

1. sharp

Descendants

• French: tranchant

Old French

Adjective

trenchant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular trenchant or trenchante)

1. sharp; razor sharp

Declension

Verb

trenchant

1. present participle of trenchier