lustre

• IPA^(key): /ˈlʌstə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌstə

From Middle French lustre. See luster (etymology 1).

lustre (countable and uncountable, plural lustres)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster (shine, etc.)
2. (geology) The way in which the surface of any particular type of mineral reflects light differently from other minerals, which is helpful in telling minerals apart.

   Various kinds of minerals differ in their lustre; iron pyrites are described as having a metallic lustre, glassy materials a vitreous lustre; others, such as opal, look resinous, and the lustres of yet others are described as being either pearly, or silky, or dull, like earth.

3. A glass ornament such as a prism or cut glass dangling beneath a chandelier; usually in clusters or festoons.
   • 2013, Shena Mackay, Redhill Rococo, →ISBN:

     ...he went out through the unfamiliar hall, setting the chandelier clashing its dusty lustres with his hand, leaving a prismatic jangle behind him in the empty house.

5. (dated) A chandelier, particularly one decorated with glass lustres.
   • 1838, John Henry Brady, A new pocket guide to London and its environs‎^[1]:

     In the centre is painted an eagle, from whose beak an elegant glass lustre chandelier is suspended. There are also ten smaller chandeliers in different parts of the room.

   • 1889, anonymous author, The Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply & Sanitary Improvement‎^[2]:

     On the ground floor, the library (a room in carved oak) is lighted by a lustre composed of twelve regenerative burners enclosed in tinted glasses.

• dullness
• lacklustre

• lustreware

• lustrous

lustre (third-person singular simple present lustres, present participle lustring, simple past and past participle lustred)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster

From Middle English lustre, from Latin lustrum, from Old Latin *loustrom, of uncertain origin. More at lustrum.

lustre (plural lustres)

1. (British spelling) Alternative form of luster: A 5-year period, especially (historical) in Roman contexts.

From Latin lustra (“wilds, woods”), thought to derive from unattested *dustrum, from unattested Ancient Greek *δύστρον (*dústron, “place animals wallow”), from δύω (dúō, “to plunge, to wallow”).

lustre (plural lustres)

1. (British spelling, obsolete) Alternative form of luster: a den, a dwelling-place in a wilderness, especially for animals.

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

• Luster, Ulster, lurest, luster, luters, result, rulest, rustle, sutler, truels, ulster

Borrowed from Latin lustrum. Doublet of llustre and llostre.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈlus.tɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈlus.tɾe]

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. lustrum (period of five years)

• llustre

• “lustre” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

• IPA^(key): /lystʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Borrowed from Latin lūstrum (“purification celebrated every few years; a period of five or four years”).

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. (literary) lustrum; period of five years
2. (figuratively; chiefly in the plural) a very long time, an eternity

   Synonyms: éternité, (informal) plombes, (informal) belle lurette

   Ça fait des lustres que je ne t’ai pas vu ! ― I haven't seen you in ages!

• Larousse considers all senses of this word as literary,^[1] but only that of "five years" is marked as such by Le Robert^[2] and Trésor.^[3]

From Middle French lustre, from Italian lustro.

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. lustre, chandelier
2. gloss, shine, lustre

• lustrage
• lustrer
• lustrine

• → German: Lüster
• → Persian: لوستر (lustr)
• Polish: lustro n
• Russian: лю́стра f (ljústra)

lustre f pl

1. feminine plural of lustro

Borrowed from Italian lustro.

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. lustre; shine

• → Middle English: lustre
• French: lustre
  • → German: Lüster
  • → Persian: لوستر (lustr)
  • Polish: lustro n
  • Russian: лю́стра f (ljústra)

From French lustre.

• Hyphenation: lus‧tre

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. chandelier

lustre

1. inflection of lustrar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈlustɾe/ [ˈlus.t̪ɾe]
• Rhymes: -ustɾe
• Syllabification: lus‧tre

From either French lustre or Catalan llustre, from Italian lustro, derived from the verb lustrare. A French or Catalan intermediate is likely due to the change in the final vowel, typical of borrowings that are ultimately early Italianisms before the 16th century. Not attested in Old Spanish; first attested in Nebrija.

lustre m (plural lustres)

1. lustre, shine

   el lustre de mis zapatos, del metal, de los minerales

   the shine of my shoes, of the metal, of minerals

   • 1495, Antonio de Nebrija, Vocabulario español-latino :

     Blanquear dando lustre. candifico .as.

     To whiten giving lustre: candificō, -ās.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

lustre

1. inflection of lustrar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “lustre”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28
• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “lustre”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, pages 717-718