sublimity
(səˈblɪmɪtɪ)
[ad. L. sublīmitas, -tātem, f. sublīmis sublime: see -ity. Cf. F. sublimité, etc.]
The state or quality of being sublime.
† 1. High or lofty position, height. Obs.
| 1563 Homilies ii. Agst. Peril Idol. ii. H h iv, When Images are placed in Temples, and set in honorable sublimitie, and begin once to be worshipped. 1601 Holland Pliny ii. xvi. I. 11 The other cause of their [sc. the planets] sublimities is, for that [etc.]. 1665 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 192 The subtility of the air and the sublimity of those Hills, which he says surpass the Alps. 1688 Holme Armoury iii. iii. 137/2 Geometrical Terms for their Plots, Figures, [etc.]. Sublimities, the heights or highness of things. |
† 2. High dignity of office, vocation, or the like.
| 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. iv. 56 Being held with admiration of their own sublimitie and honor. a 1656 Ussher Power of Princes i. (1661) 43 The Regal sublimity is constituted by God. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 12 June 1650, He magnified the sublimity of the calling. a 1727 Newton Chronol. Amended ii. (1728) 226 Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion. |
† b. A highly placed person. Obs.
| 1610 Boys Exp. Domin. Ep. & Gosp. Wks. (1629) 163 Soueraigne Sublimities on earth are Gods among men. |
† c. A high or dignified status. Obs.
| 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. i. 41 If we be profitable servants, why doe we envy the eternall gaines of our Lord for our temporall sublimities or Prerogatives? |
d. The status of one whose title is ‘Sublime’; used with poss. pron. as a title of honour; in later use chiefly applied to the Sultan of Turkey or to the Sublime Porte.
So med.L. sublimitas.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 165, I beyng a Scholasticall panion, obtestate your sublimitie, to extoll myne infirmitie. 1589 [? Nashe] Almond for Parrat Ded. 1 Which if your sublimitie accept in good part,..I am yours. 1820 Byron Juan iv. xci, In the Dardanelles, Waiting for his Sublimity's firman. 1892 Sat. Rev. 22 Oct. 466/1 Its Sublimity was unable to perceive any violation of the Treaty of Berlin. |
3. Loftiness or grandeur of nature, character, conduct, or action; high excellence.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531), 208 b, The length, the brede, the deepnes, and the sublimite or hye excellence of the crosse of Chryst. [See Eph. iii. 18, Vulg.]. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. 181 Those things, which..for height and sublimitie of matter..wee are not able to reach vnto. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. i. 11 In respect of Gods incomprehensible sublimitie, and puritie. 1655 M. Carter Honor Rediv. (1660) 17 [Painting] hath been for its sublimity reckoned..among the liberall Sciences. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 343 That, for truth and sublimity of doctrine, no book or system in the whole world came up to the holy scriptures. a 1812 Buckminster Serm. (1827) 36 Is there any thing to be learned..from the sublimity of the character, which is so much a subject of taste? 1851 ‘L. Mariotti’ Italy 29 In 1846, France had not reached the acme of republican sublimity. 1870 Mozley Univ. Serm. iii. (1876) 67 In the Christian doctrine of a future state..the real belief in the doctrine goes together with..the moral sublimity of the state. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Libr. (1892) I. v. 192 The genuine old Puritan spirit ceases to be picturesque only because of its sublimity. |
b. An instance of this; a sublime thing or being.
| 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. 17 Knowledge and vertue, with such abstracted sublimities as these. a 1715 Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 86 They..seemed to carry their devotions to a greater sublimity than others did. Ibid. 189 He loved to talk of great sublimities in religion. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. liv, The particle of those sublimities Which have relapsed to chaos. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. ii. (1867) 27 Those false sublimities of an enthusiastic pietism. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. i. x, When such exhibition could appear a propriety, next door to a sublimity. |
4. Loftiness of conception, sentiment, language, style, or treatment.
| 1624 Gataker Transubst. 103 That subtilty and sublimitie of wit, that Jerome commandeth in Ephrems workes. 1676 Hobbes Iliad Pref. (1686) 5 The Sublimity of a Poet, which is that Poetical Fury which the Readers for the most part call for. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 1 Cor. ii. 6 Sublimity and accurateness of Speech. 1781 Cowper Table-T. 644 In him..Sublimity and Attic taste, combin'd. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. i. 7 Bursts of rapture and of unparalleled sublimity. 1841 W. Spalding Italy I. 158 Polycletus,..a fellow-pupil of Phidias,..did not reach the sublimity of his rival in the representation of divinity. 1896 Duke of Argyll Philos. Belief 280 It is impossible to deny the sublimity of this conception. |
5. That quality in external objects which awakens feelings of awe, reverence, lofty emotion, a sense of power, or the like.
| 1779 Johnson L.P., Cowley (1868) 9 Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion. 1787 Polwhele Engl. Orator iii. 512 His Voice Commanding..stern His Aspect and terrific..Sublimity his every Nod Attended. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps iii. §9. 72 This expedient of continued series forms the sublimity of arcades and aisles. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. x, Earth's loveliness or heaven's sublimity. |
b. A sublime feature; a sublime expanse.
| 1819 in Corr. Lady Lyttelton (1912) 214 The sublimities of the Alps. a 1853 Robertson Lect. i. (1858) 19 His character had been moulded by the sublimities of the forms of the outward nature. a 1869 Lowell Rhoecus 157 The sky, With all its bright sublimity of stars. |
6. The state of emotion produced by the perception or contemplation of the sublime.
| 1739 Hume Hum. Nat. II. 282 Any great elevation of place communicates a kind of pride or sublimity of imagination. c 1791 Encycl. Brit. (1797) VIII. 107/2 The emotions of grandeur and sublimity are nearly allied. 1887 A. Bain On Teaching Engl. vi. 100 The Emotion termed Sublimity is connected with vastness of Power. |
7. A high degree or standard, a height; with the, the highest degree, height, summit, acme.
| 1637 Earl of Monmouth tr. Malvezzi's Romulus & Tarquin 241 Bounding upon madnesse, it [sc. Melancholy] brings men to a sublimity, out of which one cannot passe. a 1667 Jer. Taylor (Ogilvie 1882), The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living, which are to be desired when dying. 1812 Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 34 There belong to it sublimities of virtues which all may attain, and which no man can transcend. 1823 Lamb Guy Faux in Eliana (1867) 20, I must make more haste; I shall not else climb the sublimity of this impiety. Ibid. 21 Such a sublimity of malice. 1883 tr. Stepniak's Undergr. Russia Introd. 42 He combines in himself the two sublimities of human grandeur: the martyr and the hero. |
† b. A supreme or extreme phrase. Obs.
| 1651 N. Bacon Disc. Gov. Eng. ii. viii. (1739) 47 A qualified Legiance, without those sublimities of absolute, indefinite, immutable, &c. |
Hence suˈblimityship, as a mock title.
| 1858 Lytton What will He do i. xvii, Her Serene Sublimityship, Lady Selina Vipont. |