different between superb vs lustrous

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin superbus.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /su?p?b/, /s??p?b/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sju??p??b/, /su??p??b/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b
• Hyphenation: su?perb

Adjective

superb (comparative superber, superlative superbest)

1. First-rate; of the highest quality; exceptionally good.

   • Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

2. Grand; magnificent; august; stately.

3. (dated) Haughty.
   • 1858, Julia Kavanagh, Adèle, a Tale: Volume 2 (p.235):

     A remark which Isabella received with a superb curl of the lip, but at the same time, and to her brother's infinite relief, she walked away.

Synonyms

• excellent
• superlative

Derived terms

• superbly

Translations

Anagrams

• BUPERS, Repubs

German

Alternative forms

• süperb

Etymology

Borrowed from French superbe, from Latin superbus.

Pronunciation

Adjective

superb (not comparable)

1. superb

Declension

Further reading

• “superb” in Duden online

Romanian

Etymology

From French superbe, from Latin superbus.

Adjective

superb m or n (feminine singular superb?, masculine plural superbi, feminine and neuter plural superbe)

1. superb

Declension

English

Etymology

lustre +? -ous

Adjective

lustrous (comparative more lustrous, superlative most lustrous)

1. Having a glow or lustre.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act IV, Scene 2, [1]

     Why it hath bay windows transparent as barricadoes, and the clearstores toward the south north are as lustrous as ebony; and yet complainest thou of obstruction?

   • 1892, Walt Whitman, "Gods" in Leaves of Grass (abridged reprint of the 1892 edition), New York: The Modern Library, 1921, p. 232, [2]

     Or Time and Space,

     Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous,

     Or some fair shape I viewing, worship,

     Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night,

     Be ye my Gods.

   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 1,^[3]

     It was a hot noon in July; and his face, lustrous with perspiration, beamed with barbaric good humor.

   • 1936, Wallace Stevens, "Meditation Celestial & Terrestrial" in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971, p. 123,

     The wild warblers are warbling in the jungle

     Of life and spring and of the lustrous inundations,

     Flood on flood, of our returning sun.

   • 2000, Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass, Random House Children's Books, 2001, Chapter 1,^[4]

     The sunlight lay heavy and rich on his lustrous golden fur, and his monkey hands turned a pine cone this way and that, snapping off the scales with sharp fingers and scratching out the sweet nuts.

2. As if shining with a brilliant light; radiant.

Translations