Brillar por su ausencia
To shine by one's absence.
to be conspicuously absent; **to be conspicuously absent**; **to be notably absent**; **to be conspicuous by one's absence**; **to be nowhere to be seen**; **to be conspicuously missing**
Brillar por su ausencia means to be conspicuously absent, to be notably missing, or to be absent when one's presence would normally be expected.
En la reunión, el jefe brilló por su ausencia.
The boss was conspicuously absent from the meeting.
En la fiesta brillaron por su ausencia los invitados más importantes.
The most important guests were conspicuously absent from the party.
En su discurso, las propuestas concretas brillaron por su ausencia.
Concrete proposals were conspicuously absent from his speech.
Los resultados brillan por su ausencia.
There are no results to be seen.
La educación brilla por su ausencia en ese programa.
Education is conspicuously lacking in that programme.
It is usually used ironically: something is so clearly missing that its absence becomes one of the most noticeable features of the situation.
A common construction is:
Alguien/algo brilla por su ausencia.
→ Someone/something is conspicuously absent.
- an expected person does not appear
- something that should be present is missing
- an important quality is noticeably lacking
- someone fails to attend an event
- a promised resource or service is nowhere to be found
The expression is based on a deliberate irony.
Normally, something shines because it is present and visible. Here, the opposite happens: something "shines" because it is absent.
The paradox makes the absence particularly emphatic:
No está, y precisamente por eso llama la atención.
The expression is related to the French phrase briller par son absence, which has the same ironic structure and meaning.
The expression can refer not only to people, but also to qualities, objects, results or ideas.
A person
El director brilló por su ausencia.
→ The director was conspicuously absent.
An object or resource
Los medios de seguridad brillaron por su ausencia.
→ Safety measures were conspicuously lacking.
A quality
La lógica brilla por su ausencia en este argumento.
→ Logic is conspicuously absent from this argument.
The last use is particularly common in journalistic and argumentative language.
The expression is an example of ironic semantic reversal: the verb brillar, normally associated with presence and visibility, is combined with ausencia, producing the opposite effect.
It is also closely related to the English:
conspicuous by one's absence
and the French:
briller par son absence
which preserve essentially the same metaphor.
The English equivalent "conspicuous by one's absence" is particularly close because it preserves the same paradox.
For example:
El presidente brilló por su ausencia.
→ The president was conspicuous by his absence.
In everyday English, however, "was conspicuously absent" is often more natural.
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