a. arch. [f. BRIGHT a. + -SOME: cf. gladsome, darksome.] Partaking of or exhibiting brightness, bright-looking. (A vaguer word than bright, leaving more to the imagination.)
1558. Phaër, Æneid, IX. (1560), B b iij. His hie helme … that brightsome beames reflecting shone.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., I. 99/2. Men of so brightsome countenances.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, vi. 13. As brightsome as the Paramour of Mars.
1635. J. Hayward, Banish’d Virg., 108. The night … is yet very brightsome and cleare.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, II. 154. Let me strew Their brightsome blossoms.
Hence Brightsomeness. arch.
1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 734. The brightsomenes of the gold.
1849. Rock, Ch. of Fathers, II. vi. 283. The brightsomeness of the Gospel was dimmed.
