Also 8 inlightener. [f. ENLIGHTEN v. + -ER1.] One who, or that which, enlightens; one who imparts intellectual light, informs or instructs. Rare in physical sense.
1582. Bentley, Mon. Matrones, III. 225. O mine Inlightener, it is thou that hast taught and instructed me.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 271. O sent from Heav’n, Enlightner of my darkness.
1763. Warburton, Doctr. Grace, I. 32. Is it possible, then, to suppose them [the Apostles] to be deserted by this Inlightener…?
1840. Mill, Diss. & Disc., Civiliz. (1859), I. 187. Literature … has almost entirely abandoned its mission as an enlightener and improver of them [the current sentiments].
1851. G. S. Faber, Many Mansions (1854), 351. The great Enlightener of Life and Immortality.
† b. In pl.: The party of enlightenment, the ‘illuminatists.’ Obs. (? nonce-use.)
1800. Month. Mag., VIII. 597. The first practical victory won by the Enlighteners over their antagonists, was the suppression of the Order of Jesuits by Clement XIV.
