sublimate

English

WOTD – 3 September 2006

Etymology

From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌblɪmeɪt/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌblɪmeɪt/, /ˈsʌblɪmət/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Verb

sublimate (third-person singular simple present sublimates, present participle sublimating, simple past and past participle sublimated)

1. (transitive, intransitive, physics) To change state from a solid to a gas without passing through the liquid state. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: sublime

2. (transitive, archaic) To purify or refine a substance through such a change of state.
3. (transitive, psychoanalysis) To modify the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of such an instinct into some acceptable activity.
   • 1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, →ISBN, page 194:

     Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and acquisitiveness.

4. (archaic) To raise to a place of honor; to refine and exalt.

   Synonyms: heighten, elevate

   • 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], OCLC 1114833197:

     The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt.

Related terms

• corrosive sublimate
• sublimation
• sublime

 

Translations

to change from solid to gas

• Bulgarian: сублимирам (bg) (sublimiram)
• Catalan: sublimar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 升華／升华 (zh) (shēnghuá)

• Czech: sublimovat
• Finnish: sublimoitua (intr.), sublimoida (tr.)
• French: sublimer (fr)
• German: sublimieren (de)
• Japanese: 昇華させる (ja) (shōka saseru)
• Korean: 승화하다 (ko) (seunghwahada)
• Maori: whakahaurehu, whāhaurehu
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• Russian: сублими́ровать (ru) impf or pf (sublimírovatʹ), возгоня́ть (ru) impf (vozgonjátʹ), возгна́ть (ru) pf (vozgnátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сублимирати

  Roman: sublimirati

• Spanish: sublimar (es)
• Swedish: sublimera
• Tagalog: lakdasingawin
• Thai: ระเหิด (th) (rá-hə̀ət)

to purify or refine by sublimation

• Bulgarian: пречиствам (bg) (prečistvam)
• Finnish: sublimoida, haihduttaa
• French: sublimer (fr)
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• Russian: очища́ть (ru) impf (očiščátʹ), очи́стить (ru) pf (očístitʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сублимирати

  Roman: sublimirati

• Spanish: sublimar (es)

psychoanalysis

• Czech: sublimovat
• Finnish: sublimoida, ylevöittää
• French: sublimer (fr)
• German: sublimieren (de)
• Japanese: 昇華させる (ja) (shōka saseru)
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сублимирати

  Roman: sublimirati

• Spanish: sublimar (es)
• Swedish: sublimera

to raise to a place of honor

• Catalan: sublimar (ca)
• Finnish: ylevöittää
• French: honorer (fr)
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• Russian: возвыша́ть (ru) (vozvyšátʹ), возвы́сить (ru) pf (vozvýsitʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сублимирати

  Roman: sublimirati

• Spanish: sublimar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} sublimar

Noun

sublimate (plural sublimates)

1. (chemistry) A product obtained by sublimation.

See also

• freeze-dry

Anagrams

• multibase, umbalites

Ido

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /subliˈmate/

Verb

sublimate

1. adverbial present passive participle of sublimar

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

sublimate

1. inflection of sublimare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

sublimate f pl

1. feminine plural of sublimato

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /sub.liːˈmaː.te/, [s̠ʊblʲiːˈmäːt̪ɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /sub.liˈma.te/, [subliˈmäːt̪e]

Verb

sublīmāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of sublīmō