luminary

Etymology

It comes from Late Middle English lūminārī or lūminārīe, meaning “lamp; source of spiritual light, example of holiness; glory”, borrowed from Old French luminarie (“lamp, lights, lighting; candles; brightness, illumination”), a variant of luminaire (“light fixture”, giving modern French luminaire). This traces to Medieval Latin lūminārium, from lūmināre (“that which gives light; light; lamp; body giving light, especially a heavenly body”), from lūmen (“light; brightness”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk-, “bright; to shine”) plus -āris, a suffix forming adjectives indicating a relationship or pertaining to something. It is a doublet of luminaire.