Other forms: sparkling, sparkles, sparkled
To sparkle is to shine with quick bright points of light. The water sparkled, a sparkle in her eye, sparkling clean.
The points have to move or flash — steady light glows and does not sparkle — which is why frost, cut glass and moving water do it. Figuratively, a person sparkles when they are lively and quick in company, and a sparkle in the eye means humour or mischief. Note sparkling wine and sparkling water, where the word means carbonated; and sparkler, which is the firework.
1verbsparkleTo shine with quick bright points of light.
“The frosty grass sparkled in the early morning sun.”
2nounqualityThat quality of brightness or liveliness.
“The young actress brought real sparkle to a rather dull play.”
sparkle is a flashing brightness.
Spark plus the -le ending that makes a repeated action, like crackle, twinkle and dazzle. English forms dozens of verbs this way and they nearly all describe something happening over and over.
Middle English
sparkel
English, today
sparkle
From Middle English sparkel, sparkle, sparcle, equivalent to spark + le. In some modern uses deverbal from etymology 2 below.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA