ETYMOLOGY
from Latin splendidus (bright, glittering, splendid) + -ious
EXAMPLE
“…Of whom Gregorius Naz[i]anzen spekethe, seyenge, “Suche men reprove liȝhtely straunge thinges, but vnnethe with grete difficulte thei folowe goode thynges.” Wherefore y seenge the poverte and insufficience of my connynge after so splendidious laboures dredde to proferre a raw thynge with bareyne eloquence and to purpose as a thynge bytter to so mellifluous delices….”
From: Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden maonachi Cestrensis
By Ranulf Higden
Translated by John Trevisa, a1475
Lexicophilia 