BharatNotes Enlightenment
noun (proper noun when referring to the 18th-century movement; common noun otherwise)Usage in a UPSC answer
The Enlightenment's doctrine of natural rights, transmitted through Rousseau's Social Contract and Locke's Second Treatise, provided Indian liberal nationalists like Gopal Krishna Gokhale and the early Congress with a universalist vocabulary of popular sovereignty that was simultaneously anti-colonial and constitutionalist.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
Enlightenment (proper noun), enlightenment (common noun — Buddhist sense of awakening), enlighten (verb), enlightened (adj), enlightening (adj), enlightener (noun), unenlightened (adj)
Root
Old English inlīhtan (to illuminate, to make clear) → enlighten (verb) + -ment (noun suffix of process/result)
Etymology
From the Old English verbal root inlīhtan (to light up, illuminate), compounded with the Latin-derived suffix -ment. The philosophical usage as a historical period name translates German Aufklärung (clearing up, illumination) and French Lumières (lights), terms applied retrospectively by 19th-century historians to the 18th-century rationalist movement. Kant's 1784 essay 'What is Enlightenment?' — defining it as humanity's emergence from self-incurred tutelage — remains the canonical self-definition.
Memory Hook
EN-LIGHTEN-ment: literally 'to light up' the darkness of superstition with the candle of REASON. Picture the philosophes lighting candles in a dark medieval church — each candle = one idea (rights, liberty, progress).
Tip: press Alt+S to hear pronunciation
