A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1068 entries
glory
A series of concentric colored rings that appear around the shadow of your head on fog or cloud, caused by light backscattering through water droplets. Seen from mountaintops, aircraft, and alongside the Brocken spectre. The glory is always centered on your own shadow — each person sees their own.
Etymology
From Old French “glorie,” from Latin “gloria” (fame, renown). The optical phenomenon takes its name from the halo effect resembling a saint’s glory or nimbus in religious art.