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<font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3" face="Arial">Hi Rory,</font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3" face="Arial"><br></font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3" face="Arial"><br></font><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3" face="Arial">just a very quick answer to your questions bout German:</font><br><br><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3" face="Arial"><font style="font-size: 10pt;" size="2">Does this metaphor exist even in German? I'm
looking in an unabridged Collins dictionary, and I see almost nothing in
there to support what we're looking for. An idea can be glaenzend,
which means 'shiny' or 'lustrous', as can a success or one's prospects.
But a person is intelligent, klug, schlau, aufgeweckt ("woken-up"),
gewitzt or gescheit. As far as I know, none of these indicates luminousity.
</font><br><br>This is true, but there is a (maybe nowadays somewhat more old-fashioned(?)) use of <i>hell</i>(e) 'bright' in the sense of smart/intelligent/clever. You can call someone "ein helles Koepfchen" (lit. a bright head) meaning that person is smart, or you can say <i>Der ist nicht so ganz helle</i> ('He isn't quite so smart'), I guess it gets mostly used in negated sentences, though I've heard people say thigs like <i>Der ist ziemlich helle</i> ('He's quite smart'). I cannot, however, think of any metaphoric use of a word meaning 'dim/dark' and also something like dim-witted.<br><br>All the best,<br>Iren<br></font>
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