sublime

See also: sublimé

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈblaɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪm

Etymology 1

From Middle English sublimen, borrowed from Old French sublimer, from Latin sublimō (“to raise on high; to sublimate (in Medieval Latin)”).

Verb

sublime (third-person singular simple present sublimes, present participle subliming, simple past and past participle sublimed)

1. (chemistry, physics, transitive, intransitive) To sublimate.
2. (transitive) To raise on high.
   • 1857, E. P. Whipple, Harper's Magazine:

     a soul sublimed by an idea above the region of vanity and conceit

3. (transitive) To exalt; to heighten; to improve; to purify.

   Synonym: (archaic) sublimate

   • 1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W. Lewis […], published 1711, →OCLC:

     The sun […] / Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, / But ripens spirits in cold, northern climes

4. (transitive) To dignify; to ennoble.
   • 1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, “Section III”, in Clerus Domini: or, A Discourse of the Divine Institution, Necessity, Sacrednesse, and Separation of the Office Ministerial. […], London: […] R[ichard] Royston […], published 1655, →OCLC, paragraph 11, page 17:

     An extraordinary miniſtery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift; that is a miraculous calling and vocation and deſignation by the holy Ghoſt; but an ordinary gift cannot ſublime an ordinary perſon to a ſupernaturall imployment; […]

Related terms

• sublimation

Translations

to sublimate

• Bulgarian: сублимирам (bg) (sublimiram)
• Danish: sublimere
• Finnish: sublimoitua
• French: sublimer (fr)
• German: sublimieren (de)
• Hungarian: szublimál (hu), elillan (hu)
• Macedonian: возвишува (vozvišuva), сублими́ра (sublimíra)
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• Russian: сублимировать (ru) (sublimirovatʹ), возгонять (ru) (vozgonjatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀звӣшен m

  Roman: ùzvīšen (sh) m

• Slovene: veličasten (sl)
• Spanish: sublimar (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle French sublime, from Latin sublīmis (“high”), from sub- (“up to, upwards”) + a root of uncertain affiliation often identified with Latin līmis, ablative singular of līmus (“oblique”) or līmen (“threshold, entrance, lintel”).

Adjective

sublime (comparative sublimer, superlative sublimest)

1. Noble and majestic.
   • 1842, Thomas De Quincey, “Cicero”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine:

     the sublime Julian leader

2. Impressive and awe-inspiring, yet simple.

   sublime scenery

   a sublime deed

   • 1718, Matthew Prior, “To Dr. Sherlock, On His Practical Discourse Concerning Death”, in Poems on Several Occasions‎^[1]:

     Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime.

   • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Light of Stars”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, page 13:

     Know how sublime a thing it is, / To suffer and be strong.

   • 1897, John Munro, chapter VI, in A Trip to Venus:

     We had entered the clouds. For half-an-hour we were muffled in a cold, damp mist, and total darkness, and had begun to think of going indoors when, all at once, the car burst into the pure and starlit region of the upper air. A cry of joyous admiration escaped from us all. The spectacle before us was indeed sublime.

   • 1993, Richard Klein, Cigarettes are sublime, London: Picador, published 1995, →ISBN, page 62:

     Cigarettes are poison and they taste bad; they are not exactly beautiful, they are exactly sublime.

3. (obsolete) Lifted up; high in place; exalted aloft; uplifted; lofty.
   • 1697, Virgil, “Aeneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Sublime on these a tower of steel is reared.

4. (obsolete) Elevated by joy; elated.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 96:

     While thir hearts were jocund and ſublime, / Drunk with Idolatry, drunk with Wine,

5. Lofty of mien; haughty; proud.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30:

     countenance sublime and insolent

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     His fair large Front and Eye ſublime declar'd / Abſolute rule;

Derived terms

• Sublime Porte
• sublimeness

Related terms

• subliminal
• sublimity

Translations

noble and majestic

• Armenian: վեհ (hy) (veh)
• Bulgarian: благороден (bg) (blagoroden), възвишен (bg) (vǎzvišen)
• Catalan: sublim (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 崇高 (zh) (chónggāo)

• Czech: vznešený (cs)
• Danish: sublim
• Esperanto: nobla (eo), majesta
• Finnish: ylevä (fi), ylhäinen (fi)
• French: sublime (fr)
• Galician: sublime (gl) m or f
• German: hehr (de), erhaben (de), nobel (de), sublim (de)
• Hungarian: nemes (hu), előkelő (hu)
• Italian: sublime (it)
• Japanese: 崇高 (ja) (すうこう, sūkō), 高邁 (ja) (こうまい, kōmai)
• Korean: 숭고한 (sunggohan)
• Macedonian: возвишен m (vozvišen)
• Manx: ^{(please verify)} ard-reamagh
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sublim

• Old Norse: gǫfugr
• Polish: wzniosły (pl)
• Portuguese: sublime (pt)
• Russian: возвы́шенный (ru) (vozvýšennyj), вели́чественный (ru) (velíčestvennyj)
• Sanskrit: ऋष्व (sa) (ṛṣva)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀звӣшен m

  Roman: ùzvīšen (sh) m

• Spanish: sublime (es)

impressive and awe-inspiring

• Armenian: վեհ (hy) (veh)
• Bulgarian: грандиозен (bg) (grandiozen), величествен (bg) (veličestven)
• Catalan: sublim (ca)
• Esperanto: impona
• Finnish: hämmästyttävä (fi)
• German: grandios (de), vortrefflich (de)
• Greek: επιβλητικός (el) (epivlitikós)
• Hungarian: fenséges (hu), emelkedett (hu), fennkölt (hu), magasztos (hu)
• Macedonian: возвишен m (vozvišen)
• Manx: ^{(please verify)} ard-reamagh
• Russian: впечатля́ющий (ru) (vpečatljájuščij), потряса́ющий (ru) (potrjasájuščij)
• Spanish: sublime (es), portentoso (es)

Noun

sublime (plural sublimes)

1. Something sublime.
   • 1900, Willa Cather, “Eric Hermannson's Soul”, in Cosmopolitan, 28:633 (April):

     Asa Skinner was a man possessed of a belief, of that sentiment of the sublime before which all inequalities are leveled, that transport of conviction which seems superior to all laws of condition, under which debauchees have become martyrs; which made a tinker an artist and a camel-driver the founder of an empire.

Translations

something sublime

• Galician: sublime (gl) m
• German: Erhabene n
• Portuguese: sublime (pt) m
• Russian: возвышенное (ru) n (vozvyšennoje)

Anagrams

• blueism

Danish

Adjective

sublime

1. definite of sublim
2. plural of sublim

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French sublime, borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.blim/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -im

Adjective

sublime (plural sublimes)

1. sublime, extraordinary

Derived terms

• Sublime Porte

Verb

sublime

1. inflection of sublimer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “sublime”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

sublime

1. inflection of sublim:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suˈbli.me/
• Rhymes: -ime
• Hyphenation: su‧blì‧me

Adjective

sublime (plural sublimi)

1. sublime

Derived terms

• sublimemente

Related terms

• sublimità

Latin

Adjective

sublīme

1. vocative masculine singular of sublīmus

References

• “sublime”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sublime”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• sublime in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to fly aloft; to be carried into the sky: sublimem or sublime (not in sublime or sublimiter) ferri, abire
    

Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublīmus.

Adjective

sublime m or f (plural sublimes)

1. sublime (noble, majestic, magnificent, etc.)

Descendants

• French: sublime

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /suˈblĩ.mi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /suˈblĩ.mi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /suˈbli.me/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /suˈbli.mɨ/ [suˈβli.mɨ]

• Hyphenation: su‧bli‧me

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin sublīmis.

Adjective

sublime m or f (plural sublimes)

1. sublime

Noun

sublime m or f by sense (plural sublimes)

1. sublime

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

sublime

1. inflection of sublimar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Related terms

• sublimação
• sublimado
• sublimar
• sublimável
• sublimidade

 

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suˈblime/ [suˈβ̞li.me]
• Rhymes: -ime
• Syllabification: su‧bli‧me

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Adjective

sublime m or f (masculine and feminine plural sublimes)

1. sublime

Derived terms

• sublimemente

 

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

sublime

1. inflection of sublimar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “sublime”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014