nitid

English

Etymology

From Latin nitidus.

Adjective

nitid (comparative more nitid, superlative most nitid)

1. Bright; lustrous; shining.

   Synonym: (obsolete, rare) nitty

   • 1664, Robert Boyle, Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours:

     Thus we restore Old pieces of Dirty Gold to a clean and nitid Yellow, by putting them into the Fire, and into Aqua-fortis, which take off the adventitious Filth that made that pure Metall look of a Dirty Colour.

   • 1864, Francis P. Pascoe, “Longicornia Malayana”, in Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London, Third Series, Vol. III:

     mandibles black ; palpi testaceous ; elytra reddish-brown, slightly nitid, the central portion with a few barely preceptible ashy spots ...

2. (obsolete, of a person) Festively or smartly dressed; spruce; fine.
   • 1657, Thomas Reeve, God's Plea for Nineveh:

     yet amongst these doth the nitid spark spend out his time: this is the Gallant's day!

   • 1852, anonymous author, “Memoirs of a Man of the World”, in Bentley's Miscellany, volume XXXI:

     My sable friend, for he was an eccclesiastic, was, however, not nitid as usual. There was a looseness of trousers, and a sloppiness of shoe, that savoured no longer of St. James's-street.

Anagrams

• Tindi, ditin