If your nose is shining like a beacon, I hope you are a reindeer employed by a jolly fat man from the North Pole.
Beacon comes from an Old English word meaning “sign,” and that's what actual beacons are for lost ships: signs of having made it to land. Beacons are often some kind of light, like the bonfires that the ancient Greeks lit on hillsides to communicate that an army had come home from overseas. You'll also see it used figuratively, especially in the phrase “beacon of hope.” Your recent marriage to a supermodel is a beacon hope to average-looking men everywhere.
