heaven
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhɛvən/
rhymes: -ɛvən
Forms: form: heavens
form: heav'n
Etymology: From a wide variety of Middle English forms including hevene, heven, hevin, and hewin (“heaven, sky”), from Old English heofon, heofone (“heaven, sky”), from Proto-West Germanic *hebn (“heaven, sky”), of uncertain origin.
Cognate with Scots heiven, hewin (“heaven, sky”), Middle Dutch heven (“sky, heaven”), Low German Heven (“heaven, sky”), and possibly the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn (“heaven, sky”), which are all probably dissimilated forms of the Germanic root which appears in Old Norse himinn (“heaven, sky”), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (himins, “heaven, sky”), Old Swedish himin, Old Danish himæn and probably also (in another variant form) Old Saxon himil, Old Dutch himil (modern Dutch hemel), and Old High German himil (German Himmel).
Accepting these as cognates, some scholars propose a further derivation from Proto-Germanic *himinaz (“cover, cloud cover, firmament, sky, heaven”).
Senses: examples: text: All that is vnder the heauen.
ref: 1535, Coverdale Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1
text: The ordinaunce...made such a great noyse and thunderyng that it seemed the heaven would have fallen.
ref: 1585, Nicholas de Nicolay, translated by Thomas Washington, The nauigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie by Nicholas Nicholay, I vi 4:
text: In ascending orderly vpwardes...The first is the Spheare of the Moone...The seuenth the Spheare of Saturne, The eight the Spheare of the fixed Starres, commonly called the firmament. The ninth is called the second moueable or Christall heauen, The tenth is called the first moueable, and the eleuenth is called the Emperiall heauen, where God and his Angels are said to dwell.
ref: 1594, Thomas Blundeville, M. Blundeuile his Exercises, act I scene 3:
text: What obscured light the heauens did grant.
ref: c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
text: The Heauens...are carried in 24 houres from East to West.
ref: 1625, Nathanæl Carpenter, chapter 4, in Geography delineated forth in two bookes, volume I, page 77:
text: God framed alſo the Stars and conſtellations; ſome fixed for the Ornament of Heaven and might, very many in number.
ref: 1656, Tho[mas] Stanley, “[The Doctrine of Plato Delivered by Alcinous.] Chap[ter] XIV. Of the Soul of the World, the Sphears and Stars.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Second Volume, volume II, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring: […], →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Academick Philosophers), page 74:
text: The moon's path lies in that belt of the heavens known as the zodiac.
ref: 1930 March, Nature, 179 2:
text: In an infinite...universe the stars would collectively outshine the Sun and flood the heavens with light far more intense than is observed.
ref: 1981, E.R. Harrison, Cosmology, XII 250:
text: Above is Heaven, Below are Suzhou and Hangzhou
ref: 2006, Peter Carroll translating a maxim of the Southern Song dynasty in Between Heaven and Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1895–1937
glosses: The sky, specifically:
The distant sky in which the sun, moon, and stars appear or move; the firmament; the celestial spheres.
examples: text: Everie...Countrie, by the nature of the place, the climate of the Heaven, and the influence of the starres hath certaine vertues.
ref: 1581, Stefano Guazzo, translated by George Pettie, Ciuile Conuersation, I 26:
text: The qualitie of mercie is not ſtraind,
it droppeth as the gentle raine from heauen
vpon the place beneath
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: Fellow-believers...fed the birds of heaven with the carcases of pious and reverend Church-men.
ref: 1660, George Mackenzie, Religio Stoici, II 44:
glosses: The sky, specifically:
The near sky in which weather, flying animals, etc. appear; (obsolete) the atmosphere; the climate.
examples: text: Euery man cannot, with Archimedes, make a heauen of brasse.
ref: 1600, Thomas Nashe, Summers Last Will:
glosses: The sky, specifically:
A model displaying the movement of the celestial bodies, an orrery.
examples: text: And there was a battel in heauen. Michael & his Angels foght againſt the dragon, and the dragon foght & his Angels. But they preuailed not, nether was their place founde anie more in heauen.
ref: 1560, Geneva Bible, Revelation 12:7–8
text: Conſider firſt that the excommunicated Prelate ſaith... Kings are not immediatly from God, as by any ſpeciall Ordinance ſent from Heaven by the miniſtery of Angels and Prophets, there were but ſome few ſuch, as Moſes, Saul, David, etc.
ref: 1644, Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex: The Law and the Prince, V 16:
text: Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 263:
text: Christ's coming from the heavens has entered into the life of humanity as the Founder of the world to come.
ref: 1906 July 30, Washington Post, 12 4:
topics: Christianity
lifestyle
religion
glosses: The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:
The abode of God and of the angels and saints in His presence.
examples: text: With Ioue in heauen, or some where else.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: As he [Muhammad] was returning, in the fourth Heaven, Moses advised him to goe back to God.
ref: 1649, Alexander Ross translating the Sieur Du Ryer, The Alcoran Of Mahomet, Translated out of the Arabique into French... newly Englished, 406
text: Like the Buddhas, they [the Jains] believe that there is a plurality of heavens and hells.
ref: 1832, Charles Coleman, The Mythology of the Hindus, XIII 220:
text: The heaven of Siva is in the midst of the eternal snows and glaciers of Keilás, one of the highest and deepest groups of the stupendous summits of Hémaláya.
ref: 1841, Mountstuart Elphinstone, The History of India, I ii iv 169:
text: To grasp the Chinese's notion of Heaven, we must look at the contexts in which tian is used... In the Book of Odes (Shi jing 詩經), which includes poems dated between the eleventh and seventh centuries BCE, tian is a place where the Heavenly Thearch resides.
ref: 2011, Lillian Tseng, Picturing Heaven in Early China, section 2:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:
The abode of the Abrahamic God; similar abodes of the gods in other religions and traditions, such as Mount Olympus.
examples: text: […]he cannot thriue,
Vnlesse her prayers, whom heauen delights to heare
And loues to grant, repreeue him from the wrath
Of greatest Iustice.
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
text: After that thou shalt haue knowen that the heauens doe rule.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Daniel 4:26:
text: […]The will
And high permission of all-ruling Heaven.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Heaven commands thine arm
To lift the sure-destroying sword!
ref: 1793, Henry Boyd, Poems, II iv 270:
text: ...executing the just judgment of offended Heaven upon cattle-houghers, traitors, and assassins.
ref: 1886 May 8, The Pall Mall Gazette, 1 1:
text: There's nothing we can do but pray to heaven for good luck.
ref: 1992, E. Yoshikawa, translated by W.S. Wilson, Taiko, II 186:
text: Cosmologists regarded Heaven as a force—composed of qi 氣, which was divided into yin 陰 and yang 陽 aspects—that kept the cosmos moving.
ref: 2011, Lillian Tseng, Picturing Heaven in Early China, section 3:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:
Providence, the will of God or the council of the gods; fate.
examples: text: I wonder what your idea of heaven would be—A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably be an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze... To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on 9 different floors...
ref: 1925 July 1, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically
examples: text: Teache the people to gett heuen with fastynge.
ref: 1544, Richard Tracy, A supplycacion to our moste soueraigne lorde Kynge henry the eyght Kynge of England of Fraunce and of Irelande, section C:
text: ...what I speake
My body shall make good vpon this earth,
Or my diuine soule answer it in heauen.
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene 1]:
text: Wee haue a great high Priest, that is passed into the heauens.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 4:14:
topics: Christianity
Islam
lifestyle
religion
glosses: The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:
Paradise, the afterlife of the souls who are not sent to a place of punishment or purification such as hell, purgatory, or limbo; the state or condition of being in the presence of God after death.
examples: text: The belief in ascending to Heaven after death became widespread in the Han dynasty.
ref: 2011, Lillian Tseng, Picturing Heaven in Early China, section 3:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:
The afterlife of the blessed dead in other religions and traditions, such as the Pure Land or Elysium.
examples: text: Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women.
ref: 1660 November 14, a speech in the House of Commons in W. Cobbett, Parl. Hist. (1808), IV 145
text: The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Such a shop as that...would be quite a heaven upon earth to me.
ref: 1782, F. Burney, Cecilia, I iii iv 51
text: They thought strikes and hunger marches the quintessence of politics and Soviet Russia heaven on earth.
ref: 1940, H.G. Wells, Babes in the Darkling Wood, II iii 198:
text: While eating my snack I decided to walk around the house and I saw the hallways change into beautiful valleys and oceans. The television screen appeared on the wall. It was so beautiful that I thought I was in heaven.
ref: 2002, Summersill Elementary School, Time Travel, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 16:
glosses: Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.
examples: text: Husbandes are in heauen...whose wiues scold not.
ref: 1550, J. Heywood, Dialogue Prov. Eng. Tongue, II vii
text: Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!
ref: 1809 October 26, William Wordsworth, “The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement”, in Friend, No. 11, ll. 4-5:
text: He would just stare at me and say, “You are beautiful, you are so beautiful.” I was in heaven hearing this.
ref: 2000, Veronica Brooks, It Could Lead to Dancing, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 18:
text: We're in heaven.
ref: 2002, DJ Sammy; Yanou; Frank Reinert; Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance; Bob Clearmountain, “Heaven”, in Heaven, performed by Yanou and Do (singer), Title track:
text: She was in heaven — she'd never seen so many stars gathered in one place. She already had her eye on Charlie Dollar. Oh yes, Charlie Dollar might be ancient, but he was still raging hot in a Jack Nicholson kind of way.
ref: 2007, Jackie Collins, Drop Dead Beautiful: A Novel, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 452:
text: “Because she was modest and beautiful and he thought he was in heaven when she was around?” “Yes, that's what he said.”
ref: 2008, Robert Scott, Driven To Murder, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 163:
text: I'd turn it up to 10 and it sounded all distorted and I remember feeling like I was in heaven!
ref: 2014, Joe Satriani, Jake Brown, Strange Beautiful Music: A Musical Memoir, BenBella Books, →ISBN, page 8:
glosses: A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.
examples: text: Perhaps it has gone to the dog heaven, and is wagging somewhere in glory.
ref: 1867, J.W. De Forest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion, XXVI 368:
text: His pet name for Easthampton is ‘Goose-heaven’, and he harps upon the idea eternally.
ref: 1879 February, J. H. Payne, Scribner's Monthly, 470 2:
text: One gray beard who found the gates closed shinned up the fifteen foot fence...and dropped into the baseball heaven he was seeking.
ref: 1908 October 5, Chicago Tribune, 3 1:
text: The Dave Clark 5 deserve a place in Rock & Roll Heaven right along there beside Question Mark & The Mysterians, the Standells, Count Five, the Troggs, and the Music Machine.
ref: 1972, M. Sanders, Flash:
text: The building was once a candy factory, which makes it, Frazier says, mouse heaven.
ref: 1986 February 3, Newsweek, section 70:
text: Ricky bumps it into the garden, and tells me it is going to ‘the cooker heaven’. ‘Where it will be this size,’ adds his wife, her hands making the size of a brick. She means that it is off to the squasher.
ref: 2003 August 1, Church Times, 28 3:
text: Goronwy has gone to goldfish heaven where he is swimming in a beautiful clear blue ocean with all the other fishies.
ref: 2004 July 17, Western Mail, Cardiff, section 15:
glosses: Similarly blissful afterlives, places, or states for particular people, animals, or objects.
raw_tags: with a modifier
Synonyms: sense: sky
word: firmament
sense: sky
word: sky
sense: sky
word: welkin
sense: paradise
word: paradise
sense: paradise
word: kingdom come
sense: paradise
word: Xanadu
sense: entrance to heaven
word: pearly gates
sense: blissful place or experience
word: delight
sense: blissful place or experience
word: dream
sense: blissful place or experience
word: paradise
Hyponyms: cat heaven
doggy heaven
dog heaven
hog heaven
kitty heaven
Derived terms: as high as heaven
before heaven
blue heaven
breath of heaven
by heaven
cope of heaven
cyberheaven
die and go to heaven
eye of heaven
Father of Heaven
for heaven's sake
gift from heaven
gift from the heavens
God in heaven
happy birthday in heaven
heaven-born
heaven-bound
heaven-bow
heaven-bridge
heaven-burster
heaven forbid
heaven forfend
heavenful
heaven-gazer
heaven god
heaven help someone
heaven helps those that help themselves
heaven helps those who help themselves
heaven-high
heavenhood
heavenise
heavenize
heaven knows
heaven only knows
heavenless
heavenlike
heavenly
heaveno
heaven of heaven
heaven of heavens
heaven on a stick
heaven on earth
heaven-plant
heavens
heavenscape
heaven-sent
heaven spot
heaven tree
heavenward
heavenwards
heaven-wide
heaven worship
hog heaven
in heaven's name
in the name of heaven
Kingdom of Heaven
knocking on heaven's door
lemon heaven
Mandate of Heaven
manna from heaven
match made in heaven
midheaven
move heaven and earth
nigger heaven
pennies from heaven
rose of heaven
seven minutes in heaven
seventh heaven
Son of Heaven
stink to high heaven
Temple of Heaven
thank heaven
Third Heaven
to high heaven
tree of heaven
under heaven
vault of heaven
Related terms: heavenish
heavenric