aureole \AWR-ee-ohl\,
noun:
1. a radiance surrounding the head or the whole figure in the representation of a sacred personage.
2. any encircling ring of light or color; halo.
3. Astronomy. corona.
4. Geology. a zone of altered country rock around an igneous intrusion.
It illuminated the words on Sir Philip's monument, and then touched the small head below it, till it shone with a living glory, lighting the pale, serene face, so that it seemed to Sir Philip that the aureole of a saint had surrounded her.
-- Emma Marshall, "Heights and Valleys," 1871
…her hair was all creped into a filmy golden aureole round her face.
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel," 1871
Aureole comes from the Latin aureus, which is a diminutive term meaning "golden." It came to English in the late 1400s.
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