burnish
noun
- to polish the surface of a ceramic vessel
verb
- to make smooth, polish
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈbɜːnɪʃ/ / /ˈbɝnɪʃ/
noun
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English burnishen, burnysshen (“to polish, burnish; (figuratively) to brighten, give lustre to; to clean (something) until shiny; to decorate (with something shiny), adorn”) [and other forms], from burniss-, a stem of Old French burnir (compare, for example, the first-person present singular indicative form burnis), a variant of brunir (“to make clean and shiny, polish; to make brown”) (modern French brunir), from Frankish *brūnijan (“to polish, make resplendent”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnijaną (“to decorate; tan”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz (“brown”, adjective), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”, adjective). Unrelated to burn. The noun is derived from the verb.
- A shine of something which has been polished; a lustre, a polish.
- A shiny layer applied to a surface or other thing.
- The making of something bright, shiny, and smooth by, or (by extension) as if by, rubbing; (countable) an instance of this; a burnishing, a polishing, a shining.
“With a good burnish, the old table should fetch a higher price.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English barnishen, barnish (“to grow big (with child), to become pregnant; to grow stout or strong”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from barn (“child, offspring; infant; unborn child; human being, person; male person, man (especially a young man or young warrior)”). (from Old English bearn (“child”), from Proto-West Germanic *barn (“child”), from Proto-Germanic *barną (“child”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)) + -ishen (suffix forming verbs).
- Of a person's body: to grow large or stout; to fatten, to fill out.
“A man Grovveth in heigth and length untill he be one and tvventie yeares of age: then beginneth he to ſpread and burniſh in ſquareneſſe.”
“We must not all run up in height, like a hop-pole, but also burnish and spread in breadth: then shall we be well proportioned and complete.”
- Of a thing: to increase in size; to expand, to spread out, to swell.
“[Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects] is to paſſe a running examination ouer the vvhole Edifice, according to the properties of a vvell ſhapen Man. As […] vvhether the Fabrique bee of a beautifull Stature, vvhether for the breadth it appeare vvell burniſhed, […] and ſo forth.”
“My thoughts began to burniſh, ſprout, and ſvvell, / Curling vvith metaphors a plain intention, / Decking the ſenſe, as if it vvere to ſell.”