refulgent

Yeah, «bright and shining» for a pretentious nincompoop in love with his thesaurus. In this case, Alan Dean Foster, who wrote the novelization of the movie Star Trek, where I found this word. Even worse than his use of this word where «radiant» would have worked was the context in which it was used. «Refulgent hopes». Are you kidding me? I used to like Alan Dean Foster, but now I wonder whether I liked his books because when I read them I was too young to know any better.