sublime
pronunciation
How to pronounce sublime in British English:
UK [səˈblaɪm]
How to pronounce sublime in American English:
US [səˈblaɪm]
-
- Verb:
- vaporize and then condense right back again
- change or cause to change directly from a solid into a vapor without first melting
-
- Adjective:
- inspiring awe
- worthy of adoration or reverence
- lifted up or set high
Word Origin
- sublime
- sublime: [16] Sublime was borrowed from Latin sublīmis ‘lofty, exalted’. This was a compound adjective formed from the prefix sub- ‘under’ and probably līmen ‘lintel, threshold’ (a relative of līmes ‘boundary’, from which English gets limit). Sub- here probably has the force of ‘up to’, so that the word denotes etymologically ‘as high as the top of a door’. The same elements were used in the 1880s to coin subliminal, as a direct rendering of the German psychological term unter der schwelle des bewusstseins ‘below the threshold of consciousness’.=> limit
- sublime (adj.)
- 1580s, "expressing lofty ideas in an elevated manner," from Middle French sublime (15c.), or directly from Latin sublimis "uplifted, high, borne aloft, lofty, exalted, eminent, distinguished," possibly originally "sloping up to the lintel," from sub "up to" + limen "lintel, threshold, sill" (see limit (n.)). The sublime (n.) "the sublime part of anything, that which is stately or imposing" is from 1670s. For Sublime Porte, former title of the Ottoman government, see Porte.
Example
- 1. It is a sublime experience , to say the least .
- 2. The sublime offers solace and inspiration , but it makes a poor guide to policy .
- 3. When john lennon put pen to paper , the result was usually inspired and occasionally sublime .
- 4. The sublime symbolic turn-or the retreat to metaphor , if you prefer-begins with the first words of the faith .
- 5. Ira glass of the radio and tv show , this american life is an excellent example of how powerful storytelling can turn the mundane into the sublime .