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

1. (chemistry, physics, transitive, intransitive) To sublimate.
2. (transitive) To raise on high.
   • (Can we date this quote by E. P. Whipple and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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

   • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

4. (transitive) To dignify; to ennoble.
   • (Can we date this quote by Jeremy Taylor and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     An ordinary gift cannot sublime a person to a supernatural employment.

Related terms

• sublimation

Translations

to sublimate

• Danish: sublimere
• Finnish: sublimoitua
• French: sublimer (fr)
• German: sublimieren (de)
• Hungarian: szublimál, elillan (hu)
• Macedonian: возвишува (vozvišuva), сублими́ра (sublimíra)
• Portuguese: sublimar (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• 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.
   • (Can we date this quote by Thomas De Quincey and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     the sublime Julian leader

2. Impressive and awe-inspiring, yet simple.

   sublime scenery

   a sublime deed

   • (Can we date this quote by Matthew Prior and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Easy in words thy style, in sense sublime.

   • (Can we date this quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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.
   • (Can we date this quote by Dryden and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Sublime on these a tower of steel is reared.

4. (obsolete) Elevated by joy; elated.
   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Their hearts were jocund and sublime, / Drunk with idolatry, drunk with wine.

5. Lofty of mien; haughty; proud.
   • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     countenance sublime and insolent

   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     His fair, large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule.

Related terms

• subliminal

Translations

noble and majestic

• Armenian: վեհ (hy) (veh)
• Catalan: sublim (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 崇高 (zh) (chónggāo)

• Czech: vznešený
• 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)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: sublime (it)
• Japanese: 崇高 (ja) (すうこう, sūkō), 高邁 (こうまい, kōmai)
• Korean: 숭고한 (sunggohan)
• Macedonian: возвишен m (vozvišen)
• Polish: wzniosły (pl)
• Portuguese: sublime (pt)
• Russian: возвы́шенный (ru) (vozvýšennyj), вели́чественный (ru) (velíčestvennyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀звӣшен m

  Roman: ùzvīšen (sh) m

• Spanish: sublime (es)

impressive and awe-inspiring

• Armenian: վեհ (hy) (veh)
• Catalan: sublim (ca)
• Esperanto: impona
• Finnish: hämmästyttävä (fi)
• German: grandios (de), vortrefflich (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: επιβλητικός (el) (epivlitikós)
• Hungarian: fenséges (hu), emelkedett (hu), fennkölt (hu), magasztos (hu)
• Macedonian: возвишен m (vozvišen)
• Russian: впечатля́ющий (ru) (vpečatljájuščij), потряса́ющий (ru) (potrjasájuščij)
• Spanish: sublime (es), portentoso

Noun

sublime (plural sublimes)

1. Something sublime.

Translations

something sublime

• Galician: sublime (gl) m
• German: Erhabene n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: sublime (pt) m
• Russian: возвышенное (ru) n (vozvyšennoje)

Anagrams

• blueism

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Danish

Adjective

sublime

1. definite of sublim
2. plural of sublim

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French

Etymology

From Middle French sublime, borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.blim/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -im

Adjective

sublime (plural sublimes)

1. sublime, extraordinary

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.

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German

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

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Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Adjective

1. sublime

Related terms

• sublimità

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) 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^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to fly aloft; to be carried into the sky: sublimem or sublime (not in sublime or sublimiter) ferri, abire
    

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Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublīmus.

Adjective

sublime m or f (plural sublimes)

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

Descendants

• French: sublime

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublīmis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /su.ˈbli.mɪ/
• IPA^(key): /su.ˈbli.mɨ/
• Hyphenation: su‧bli‧me

Adjective

1. sublime

Noun

sublime m or f (plural sublimes)

1. sublime

Verb

sublime

Related terms

• sublimação
• sublimado
• sublimar

• sublimável
• sublimidade

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sublimis.

Adjective

sublime m or f (masculine and feminine plural sublimes)

1. sublime

Verb

sublime

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of sublimar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of sublimar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of sublimar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of sublimar.