eminence
(ˈɛmɪnəns)
[ad. L. ēminēntia, f. ēminēnt-em eminent.]
I. In physical senses.
1. † a. Height, altitude, degree of elevation (obs.). b. A lofty or elevated position.
| 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 278 Upon this water..pour sweet butter melted, to the eminence of two fingers. c 1800 K. White Poet. Wks. (1837) 136 Draw the fix'd stars from their eminence. 1822 J. Imison Sc. & Art I. 222 If a lighted candle be set..on an eminence. |
† 2. a. A prominence, protuberance. Chiefly in Anat. b. Bot. (See quot. 1688.) Obs.
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 438 Wherein the eminence..shooting from the vpper part of the forehead is wanting. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 493 The same Author hath discovered in it [the Tongue] many little Eminences. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 115/1 Eminence, or Woolly Eminence, is the outward skin or husk that covers round roots, as in Onions, Tulipa's. 1743 tr. Heister's Surg. 168 There is a certain Eminence in this Edge of the Acetabulum. |
3. An elevation on the earth's surface; a rising ground, hill. Also fig.
| 1670 Cotton Espernon iii. xi. 567 He caus'd two good Forts to be trac'd out..upon two Eminences. 1748 Anson Voy. iii. v. (ed. 4) 452 There is a battery..on an eminence. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 7 The other, perched on an eminence, watches the flight of the prey. 1814 Wordsw. Excursion ix. 53 We..speak..of Age As of a final Eminence. 1833 Sir J. Herschel Astron. i. §19 (1858) 17 If we ascend a high eminence on a plain. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. (1858) I. i. 5 He was beheaded on a small eminence without the walls. |
II. In non-material senses.
4. Distinguished superiority, elevated rank as compared with others. (Sometimes with fig. notion of 1.) a. in social or official position, wealth, or power.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. ii. 168 Whether the Tirranny be in his Eminence that fills it vp. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, ii. iii. 29 A Womans heart, which euer yet affected Eminence, Wealth, Soueraignty. a 1652 Brome Queene's Exchange i. i. (1657) 458 Your self A Queen of so great eminence. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 6 Satan by merit rais'd to that bad eminence. 1767 Lett. Junius xxiii. 105 The eminence of your station gave you a commanding prospect of your duty. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 165 No man could hope to rise to eminence and command but by their favour. |
b. in reputation, intellectual or moral attainment, or the possession of any quality, good or (sometimes) bad.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. I. i. 36 His Son made a notable progress, by an early eminence in Practice and Learning. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 157 ¶4 A young man that gave..hopes of future eminence. 1800 Med. Jrnl. IV. 406 Several surgeons of eminence. 1844 Emerson Nature, Young American Wks. (Bohn) II. 307 No man of letters, be his eminence what it may, is received into the best society. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. 112 Eminence in science should be made the one statutable condition [for a headship]. 1870 Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1879) II. 27 The poorer classes..excel..in the bad eminence of filth. |
† c. Mastery, the ‘upper hand’. Phrase to have the eminence of: to have the advantage of. Obs.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 266 You should not haue the eminence of him. 1613 Heywood Silver Age iii. i. Wks. (1874) 131 Long did we tugge For eminence. |
† d. spirit of eminence: pride, ambition. Obs. rare.
| 1597 Daniel Civ. Wares vi. xxxiii, Devotion..abates the spirit of eminence. |
5. a. As a title of honour, now borne only by Cardinals. (See quot. 1836.)
| 1653 Cromwell to Cdl. Mazarin (Carlyle) V. App. No. 27 It's surprise to me that your Eminence should take notice of a person so inconsiderable as myself. 1717 Berkeley Tour in Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 514 His eminence..put on his cardinal's square cap. 1836 Penny Cycl. VI. 291/1 Urban VIII, in 1630, gave to the cardinals the title of Eminence, which was shared with them by the grand master of the order of Malta, and the ecclesiastical electors of the German or Roman empire only. 1884 Weekly Reg. 11 Oct. 451/2 One word, his Eminence said he would add, concerning the Rosary. |
b. Used occas. as a designation of an important person, an authority. Cf. next.
| 1935 A. Huxley Let. 5 June (1969) 396 Individual eminences are all right; but their importance, in this context, is greatly magnified if they represent professional organizations. 1966 M. R. D. Foot SOE in France ii. 34 The eminences of various kinds consigned to SOE as a travel agent. |
† 6. Acknowledgement of superiority, homage.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. iii. ii. 31 Present him Eminence, both with Eye and Tongue. |
† 7. An eminent quality, an excellence; a distinction, honour. Obs.
| 1609 Man in Moone (1849) 16 You assume it an eminence, to be rarely arrayed. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. 128 His Eminences were Painting and Graving. Ibid. ix. 101 So severall eminences met in this worthy man. 1659 Pearson Creed (1839) 31 There must be therefore some great eminence in the object worshipped. |
† 8. a. Eminent degree or measure. Obs.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. i. x. 41 Naturall Power, is the eminence of the Faculties of Body, or Mind. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 206 ¶2 Men of our Acquaintance, who had no one Quality in any Eminence. |
b. Gram. (See quot.)
| 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. i. 91 [The superlative formed with very] is called..the superlative of eminence, to distinguish it from the other superlative. |
c. Phrase, by (way of) eminence: in an eminent or especial sense, par excellence. (In early examples sometimes in sense 7: by way of distinction.) rare in mod. use.
| 1621–31 Laud Sev. Serm. (1847) 66 Now Jerusalem is by way of singular eminence called here ‘a city compacted together’. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. 229 The principal council..is generally called, by way of eminence, the council. 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. ix. 253 This by eminence is the bright omen of the times. 1883 F. A. Walker Pol. Econ. 399 One kind of money..may be called by eminence political money. |
9. The highest development, the ‘flower’.
| 1857 H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets i. 14 The portion of literature..which may be regarded as its eminence,—its Poetry. |