illustrious

Etymology

From Latin illūstris (“bright, shining; distinguished, prominent, illustrious”) + -ous (“suffix forming adjectives from nouns, to denote possession or presence of a quality in any degree”). Illūstris is derived from illūstrō (“to brighten, illuminate; to make famous or illustrious”), from in- (“prefix meaning ‘in, inside’”) + lustrō (“to purify by making a sacrifice; to brighten, illuminate”) (from lustrō (“purificatory sacrifice”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine”) or *lewh₃- (“to wash”)).

adj

1. Admired, distinguished, respected, or well-known.
   The ant has made himself illustrious / Through constant industry industrious. / So what? / Would you be calm and placid / If you were full of formic acid? 1941, Ogden Nash, “The Ant”, in The Face is Familiar: The Selected Verse of Ogden Nash, reprint edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Garden City Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 224
   [Marcus] Rashford showed the fearless streak [Gareth] Southgate so admires with his constant willingness to run at Brazil's defence with pace, even demonstrating on occasion footwork that would not have been out of place from members of England's illustrious opposition. 14 November 2017, Phil McNulty, “England 0 – 0 Brazil”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2018-03-28