Saint Elmo's light
- noun
- /seɪnt ˈɛlmoʊz laɪt/
- Specialized
:
luz de San Elmo
- The sailors watched in awe as Saint Elmo's light danced on the tips of the ship's masts.
Examples
-
Pilots sometimes see Saint Elmo's light glowing on their aircraft windows during thunderstorms.
-
Superstitious seafarers once believed Saint Elmo's light was a sign of protection from danger.
-
The sailors saw Saint Elmo's light flickering on the mast.
-
During the storm, we witnessed Saint Elmo's lights illuminating the aircraft.
-
Pilots sometimes see Saint Elmo's light glowing on their aircraft windows during thunderstorms.
-
The sailors watched in awe as Saint Elmo's light danced on the tips of the ship's masts.
-
During the storm, we witnessed Saint Elmo's light illuminating the aircraft.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A blue glow that appears on pointed objects like ship masts or airplane wings during thunderstorms
A blue or violet glow that appears on pointed objects during storms
A glowing electric light that appears on pointed objects like a ship's mast during storms
A bluish purple glow that appears on pointed metal parts like ship masts or airplane wings during storms
A faint blue glow that appears on ship masts or airplane wings during storms caused by electricity in the air
A faint light that appears when electricity passes through air, like on antennas or wires
A faint glow around a high-voltage wire when the air becomes charged
A faint glow of electricity around a high-voltage wire
Surface Forms
Morphology
Only the constituent 'light' signals a general sense of illumination, but 'Saint Elmo's' is a proper-name historical/legendary label (and 'Elmo' is opaque to learners), so the specific sense of a bluish electrical discharge on masts is not derivable from the parts. The term is a conventionalized, culture-specific name for a scientific phenomenon, so a B1 learner who knows the words would not predict its technical meaning.
Etymology
Saint Elmo's light may come from sailors' stories: when a pointed thing like a ship's mast or a plane's wing glows blue or purple in a storm, sailors thought Saint Elmo was giving them 'protection'. So today Saint Elmo's light means that strange blue glow you sometimes see on the tips of ships or aircraft in bad weather.