sublimate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sublīmātus, the past participle of sublīmō (“to lift up, raise, elevate”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which in Medieval Latin also meant to refine.^[4] It was used first as an adjective (c. 1425) and then as a verb (before 1500), formed on the participle stem sublīmāt-.^[2][7][6] Etymonline takes the verb either as a back-formation from sublimation or as from Medieval Latin sublīmātus.^[8] The noun is borrowed from Medieval Latin sublimatum, the neuter of the participle used as a noun, recorded from 1486 or earlier;^[2][4][7] compare Spanish sublimado (1493) and Italian sublimato.^[2] The Latin verb is from sublīmis (“uplifted, lofty”), the source of sublime,^[3][5][6] which is perhaps from sub (“up to”) and līmen (“lintel, threshold”).^[8][6] Hoad also mentions līmus (“oblique”).^[6] In psychoanalysis the verb probably follows German sublimieren, used in this sense from 1897 (implied in Sublimierung).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a past participle, raised to a high degree of excellence, exalted: about 1425, in the Book of the Foundation of St Bartholomew's.^[2] Dictionary.com likewise dates the word to late Middle English, 1425–75, and the Oxford Dictionary of English gives the sense "raise to a higher status".^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb began in alchemy: in Ripley (before 1500) to undergo distillation,^[2] then from 1559 to turn a solid by heat into vapour that condenses again, the same as sublime;^[2][8] Etymonline dates the chemical sense to about 1600.^[8] The noun followed: from 1543 it was mercuric chloride, sublimate of mercury, a poison once used as an antiseptic, and in Bacon (before 1626) any substance produced by sublimation.^[2][7][4] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as anything raised by fire in the retort, and quicksilver so raised.^[11] The idea of purifying by heat gave the figurative senses: to raise a person to higher rank (1567),^[2] to refine to a higher excellence (1601, in Ben Jonson), and to transform into something nobler (1624);^[2] the noun meant a refined essence from 1657.^[2] Psychoanalysis took the verb, probably after German, for diverting an instinctual impulse into a socially acceptable activity, now its main sense.^[2][12][4]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – adjective, raised, exalted (obsolete by 1737).^[2]
• before 1500 – verb, in alchemy, to undergo distillation (obsolete).^[2]
• 1543 – noun, mercuric chloride.^[2][4]
• 1559 – verb, to convert a solid by heat into vapour that condenses again.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1600.^[8]
• c. 1567 – verb, to raise a person to a higher rank or dignity.^[2] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1590s.^[8]
• 1591 – adjective, refined, purified.^[2]
• 1601 – verb, to refine, to raise to a higher excellence.^[2]
• 1624 – verb, to transform into something nobler.^[2]
• before 1626 – noun, a substance produced by sublimation.^[2]
• 1657 – noun, figurative, a refined essence.^[2]
• 1831 – verb, to refine into unreality.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (psychology) To divert the energy of an instinctual impulse, especially a sexual one, into an activity that is socially more acceptable: He sublimated his anger into long runs along the river.^[12][4]
2. (chemistry) To sublime; to change a solid by heat directly into vapour, which condenses again.^[4][2]
3. To refine or purify; to raise to a nobler form.^[12][2]

Noun

1. (chemistry) A substance obtained by sublimation.^[12][4][2]
2. Mercuric chloride, also called corrosive sublimate.^[4][2][7]
3. A refined product; an essence.^[2]

Adjective

1. (rare) Refined, purified, or exalted.^[12][2]

Word family

• sublimation
• sublimational
• unsublimated

Related words

• corrosive sublimate
• sublime
• subliminal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins