acme
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Directly borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀκμή (akmḗ, “point, high point”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈæk.mi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
[edit]acme (plural acmes)
- A high point: the highest point of any range, the most developed stage of any process, or the culmination of any field or historical period. [c. 1610]
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:apex
- 1570, Roger Ascham, The Scholemaster, f. 31:
- 1651, William Cartwright, “The Lady Errant”, in Comedies Tragi-comedies with Other Poems:
- 1891, George Edward Mannering, With Axe and Rope in the New Zealand Alps, Chapter VII, p. 71:
- Ah, what a sight burst upon our astonished eyes as we gained its summit!
It seemed the very acme of mountain glory in all the glories around us.
- 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
- The moment when a certain power reaches the acme of its supremacy.
- A paragon: a person or thing representing such a high point. [c. 1610]
- 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 260–261:
- The few words of advice she gave him as to escaping political embarrassments, struck him as the acme of wisdom, and as indicating an interest in his well-being of the kindest description;...
- (rare) Full bloom or reproductive maturity.
- 1625 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Staple of Newes. […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot […], published 1631, →OCLC, (please specify the page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- He must be one that can instruct your youth,
And keep your acme in the state of truth
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
- The very acme and pitch of life for epic poesy.
- (euphemistic) Sexual orgasm.
- 1963, Albert Ellis, If This Be Sexual Heresy, page 120:
- [He] then holds back his own climax for another ten or fifteen minutes of active copulation until his mate signals him that she is about to reach her acme; then they both ecstatically erupt together.
- 1987, Jeanne de Berg, Women's Rites:
- She has enough of the narcissist in her to love exhibiting herself and to have the exhibition itself arouse her and bring her to her acme (that's very literary, even a little affected, but it's a word that pleases me).
- 2012, Alexander Lowen, The Language of the Body: Physical Dynamics of Character Structure:
- He reached a climax about one minute after penetration and as this was always much sooner than his partner reached her acme this disturbed him.
- (medicine) Synonym of crisis, the decisive moment in the course of an illness.
- Alternative letter-case form of Acme, particularly as a threading format.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]the highest point
|
full bloom
References
[edit]- “acme, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
- “acme”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “acme”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Derived from Ancient Greek ἀκμή (akmḗ).[1] Compare French acmé.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]acme f or (proscribed[2]) m (plural acmi)
References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- acme in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂eḱ-
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- English euphemisms
- en:Medicine
- Italian terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Italian 2-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Italian/akme
- Rhymes:Italian/akme/2 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- Italian masculine nouns
- Italian nouns with multiple genders
- it:Medicine