‖ summum bonum
(ˈsʌməm ˈbəʊnəm, ˈsʊməm ˈbɒnəm)
Pl. ˈsumma ˈbona.
[L. (Cicero), summum neut. sing. of summus highest, bonum neut. sing. of bonus good, used subst.]
The chief or supreme good: properly a term of Ethics; often transf. and in trivial or jocular use.
| 1563 T. Gale Inst. Chirurg. 11 As one myght thynke hymselfe ryght happye, though he neuer dyd attayne to Aristoteles summum bonum, or Plato his Idæa. 1591 Greene Farew. Folly Wks. (Grosart) IX. 289 The Cyriniake Philosophers..founded their summum bonum in pleasure. 1605 A. Warren Poor Man's Pass. etc. H 4 b, With Phago placing his felicity And summum Bonum in his gluttony. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §55 The Philosophers of old did in vain enquire, whether Summum bonum consisted in Riches, or bodily Delights, or Virtue, or Contemplation. 1710 Norris Chr. Prud. iii. 114 Some last End or Summum Bonum as 'tis called, some good or other which he looks upon as desirable for itself. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 208 When a glutton sits down to a well-spread table with a good appetite, he possesses as much of the summum bonum as can be obtained within the time. 1811 Coleridge Ess. Own Times (1850) III. 929 Hobbes, who..considered absolute tranquillity and implicit obedience as the summum bonum of a State. 1861 H. C. Pennell Puck on Pegasus 152 When..pap was the summum bonum of life, To a mouth in perpetual pucker. 1862 Thackeray Philip vi, To be a painter,..I hold to be one of life's summa bona. 1878 Encycl. Brit. VIII. 594/1 The summum bonum for man [according to Thomas Aquinas] is objectively God, subjectively the happiness to be derived from loving vision of His perfections. |
So ‖ ˈsummum ˈpulchrum (ˈpʌlkrəm) [L. pulchrum, neut. of pulcher beautiful, used subst.], the highest beauty.
| 1841 Clough τὸ καλόν v, The Summum Pulchrum rests in heaven above. |