splendor n.

1620s, "marked by grandeur," probably a shortening of earlier splendidious (early 15c.), from Latin splendidus "bright, shining, glittering; sumptuous, gorgeous, grand; illustrious, distinguished, noble; showy, fine, specious," from splendere "be bright, shine, gleam, glisten," from PIE *splnd- "to be manifest" (source also of Lithuanian splendžiu "I shine," Middle Irish lainn "bright"). An earlier form was splendent (late 15c.). From 1640s as "brilliant, dazzling;" 1640s as "conspicuous, illustrious; very fine, excellent." Ironic use (as in splendid isolation, 1843) is attested from 17c.

considered a playful elaboration since its re-birth in 1843, but in 15c. it was good English, from Medieval Latin splendorifer, from splendor (see splendor) + ferre "to bear, carry," from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry," also "to bear children." Compare 15c. splendidious, also splendacious (1843). Bartlett (1859) offers this, allegedly from "An itinerant gospeller ... holding forth to a Kentuckian audience on the kingdom of heaven":

"Heaven, my beloved hearers," said he, "is a glorious, a beautiful, a splendiferous, an angeliferous place. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, it has not entered into the imagination of any Cracker in these here diggings what carryings on the just made perfect have up thar."