sublime
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /səˈblaɪm/
rhymes: -aɪm
Forms: form: sublimes
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Middle French sublime (“admirable, excellent, perfect; placed in a high position; reaching a great height; of a person: of high office or rank”) (modern French sublime), and from its etymon Latin sublīmis, sublīmus (“elevated, raised; exalted, uplifted, sublime”, adjective): see etymology 1.
The noun is derived from Middle French sublime (“elevated style in writing; quality in art or nature inspiring awe, reverence, etc.”) (modern French sublime), from the adjective: see further above.
Cognates
* Catalan sublim
* Italian sublime
* Portuguese sublime
* Spanish sublime
Senses: examples: text: Car[los]. VVhat is your opinion of the Play?
 Yo[ung] Mag[got]. […] There are a great many ſublimes that are very Poetical.
ref: 1678 March 31 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Tho[mas] Shadwell, A True Widow. A Comedy, […], London: […] Benjamin Tooke, […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act I, page 6:
text: [S]ince there are tvvo ſorts of Sublimes, the one of Nonſence, and the other of Eloquence, I vvill not take upon me to judge to vvhich of theſe this belongs.
ref: 1687, G[ilbert] Burnet, “A Defence of the Reflections on the Ninth Book of the First Volum of Mr. Varillas’s History of Heresies. Being a Reply to His Answer.”, in Reflections on Mr. Varillas’s History of the Revolutions that have Happened in Europe in Matters of Religion. […], Amsterdam: […] J. S., →OCLC, page 8:
text: Novv, vvhat a fine Opportunity vvas here of introducing his Story, in all the Blaze and Terror of anxious and diſordered Nature? VVith vvhat a Sublime might that Flaſh of Lightning have been brought in, to grace the approaching Ruin, […]
ref: 1727, William Warburton, “Part II”, in A Critical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and Miracles, as Related by Historians. […], London: […] Thomas Corbett, […], →OCLC, pages 78–79:
glosses: Something which is sublime; a sublimity.
examples: text: No solemn, antique gentleman of rhyme,
 Who having angled all his life for fame,
 And getting but a nibble at a time,
 Still fussily keeps fishing on, the same
 Small "Triton of the minnows," the sublime
 Of mediocrity, the furious tame, […]
ref: 1817 (date written), [Lord Byron], “Stanza LXX”, in Beppo, a Venetian Story, London: John Murray, […], published 1818, →OCLC, page 36:
glosses: In the form the sublime of: the highest degree; the acme, the height.
examples: text: [T]he vvhole capacity of the eye, vibrating in all its parts muſt approach near to the nature of vvhat cauſes pain, and conſequently muſt produce an idea of the ſublime. Or if vve take it, that one point only of an object is diſtinguiſhable at oince; the matter vvill amount nearly to the ſame thing, or rather it vvill make the origin of the ſublime from greatneſs of dimenſion yet clearer.
ref: 1756 (date written), [Edmund Burke], “Sect. XI. Why Visual Objects of Great Dimensions are Sublime.”, in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], published 1757, →OCLC, part IV, page 132:
text: [Our old meeting house's] double row of windows, of which I knew the number by heart, its doors with great wooden quirls over them, its belfry projecting out that the east end, its steeple and bell, all inspired as much sense of the sublime in me as Stratsburg Cathedral itself, and the inside was not a whit less imposing.
ref: 1840 August, H[arriet] Beecher Stowe, “Sketches from the Note Book of an Old Gentleman. No. I.—The Old Meeting House.”, in Sarah J[osepha] Hale, Lydia H[untley] Sigourney, Louis A[ntoine] Godey, editors, Godey’s Lady’s Book, and Ladies’ American Magazine, volume XX, Philadelphia, Pa.: Louis A[ntoine] Godey, […], →OCLC, page 61, column 1:
glosses: Chiefly preceded by the.
An aspect of art or nature which causes awe or deep respect due to its beauty or magnificence; hence, the great beauty or magnificence of a place, a thing, etc.
examples: text: And, after, feigning pique at what she call'd
 The raillery, or grotesque, or false sublime—
 Like one that wishes at a dance to change
 The music—clapt her hands and cried for war,
 Or some grand fight to kill and make an end: […]
ref: 1850, Alfred Tennyson, “Part IV”, in The Princess: A Medley, 3rd edition, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 100:
glosses: Chiefly preceded by the.
A style of language or writing which expresses opinions in a grand way.
examples: text: The ſublime and the ridiculous are often ſo nearly related, that it is difficult to claſs them ſeparately. One ſtep above the ſublime, makes the ridiculous; and one ſtep above the ridiculous, makes the ſublime again.
ref: 1795, Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason. Part the Second. Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology, London: […] H. D. Symonds, […], →OCLC, page 22:
text: There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?
ref: 1839 September, Edgar A[llan] Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in William E[vans] Burton and Edgar A. Poe, editors, Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, and American Monthly Review, volume V, number III, Philadelphia, Pa.: William E. Burton, […], →OCLC, page 145:
text: For 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.
ref: 1900 April, Willa Sibert Cather, “Eric Hermannson’s Soul”, in The Cosmopolitan: A Monthly Illustrated Magazine, volume XXVIII, number 6, Irvington-on-the-Hudson, N.Y.: J[ohn] B[risben] Walker; from the Cosmopolitan Press, →OCLC, page 633, column 2:
glosses: Chiefly preceded by the.
That which is intellectually, morally, or spiritually superior in human life or human nature.
examples: text: [W]hatever VVord or Sentence is Printed in a different Character, ſhall be judged to contain ſomething extraordinary either of VVit or Sublime.
ref: 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “The Preface”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC:
glosses: The quality or state of being sublime; sublimeness, sublimity.