What does enhaloing mean?
Enhaloing is the present participle of the rare verb enhalo, meaning to surround something with a halo or to invest it with an aura of radiant glory. Used both literally and figuratively, it describes light encircling a figure — a moon enhaloing a spire, a painter's gold leaf enhaloing a saint's head — as well as the more abstract act of glorifying a person or memory, as when affection enhaloes the past. The word derives from the noun halo, which traces back through Latin to Greek halōs, a term originally denoting a threshing floor whose circular shape suggested the disk of the sun or moon. Enhaloing belongs firmly to poetic and literary register; it seldom appears in ordinary conversation, but it offers writers a precise, evocative alternative to plainer words like surrounding or glorifying whenever the sense of a luminous, sanctifying circle is wanted.
verbTo surround or encircle with a halo, as if with a ring of light; to invest a person or thing with an aura of glory or sanctity.
- To surround or encircle with, or as if with, a halo of light.
- To endow someone or something with an aura of glory, sanctity, or idealized beauty.
"The morning mist stood enhaloing the mountain summit like a crown of silver."
"A soft golden light hung enhaloing the saint's head in the medieval painting."
"Nostalgia has a way of enhaloing even the plainest childhood memories."
Built on a Greek word that originally meant 'threshing floor,' 'enhaloing' turns the image of a sunlit circular courtyard into poetry for anything crowned with light.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enhaloing
Enhaloing derives from the verb enhalo, formed by adding the prefix en- ('to cause to be in') to halo. Halo comes from Latin halos, borrowed from Greek halōs, which originally meant a threshing floor and came to denote the circular disk of the sun or moon, and later the ring of light around sacred figures in art. The verb enhalo arose in English as a literary coinage to describe this encirclement with light or glory.
Related word forms
How enhaloing is actually used
Rare and markedly literary or poetic in register; it appears almost exclusively in elevated prose and verse rather than everyday speech. It is most often encountered in its participial form, describing light literally encircling a figure or figuratively investing a memory or person with glow.
Easily confused with enhaloing
"Haloing" is simply the act of forming or surrounding with a halo, while "enhaloing" carries the intensifying prefix en-, emphasizing the deliberate bestowal of a halo-like radiance upon something.