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sublimis

Etymology and origin of the Latin word sublimis

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Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Compound
First attested
Ennius
Ultimate origin
Latin (sub,līmen)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sublimis
English sublime

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [sʊbˈliː.mɪs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [subˈliː.mis][1]

Forms

sublīmis (neuter sublīme, comparative sublimior, superlative sublīmissimus, adverb sublīme or sublīmiter); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain, Lewis & Short calling it doubtful.[2] The OLD and Georges take it apparently as from Latin sub (“up to”) + limen (“threshold, lintel”), and Lewis & Short suggest “up to the lintel”.[3][4][2] Wiktionary connects it with the root of līmus “oblique”, līmes and līmen, and Etymonline says it may first have meant sloping up to the lintel.[1][5] An older second-declension form is sublīmus.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius uses the form sublīmus of the gods' lofty, moist clouds.[3] Köbler dates Ennius 204–169 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant situated high, elevated, and as a predicate high up, aloft: in Plautus men carry someone sublīmem on their shoulders, and in Livy a man goes off sublīmis, into the air.[3][7] The neuter was a lofty position, the plural the heavenly bodies, and sublīmia the upper air and weather.[3] It meant tall and towering, of vines, columns and imposing people, and figuratively aspiring and lofty in ideas, as Horace of a man by nature sublīmis.[3] It also meant exalted in rank, noble.[3][4]

In medieval Latin sublīmēs were persons of rank, and the word was used of things in heaven.[8][9] English sublime is recorded in the 1580s of lofty language and style.[5]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses the form sublīmus.[3][6]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of someone carried aloft.[3][6]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a lofty nature.[3][6]
  • c. 978 – A chronicle uses it as a noun for a person of high rank.[6]
  • 1580s – English sublime is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. High, elevated; aloft, in the air.[3][7]
  2. Tall, lofty, towering.[3][1]
  3. (figurative) Aspiring, lofty, sublime.[3]
  4. Exalted, noble, eminent.[3][4]

Noun

  1. (neuter) A lofty position, (plural) the heavens, the upper air.[3]
  2. (Medieval Latin, plural) Persons of rank.[8]

Word family

  • sublīmen
  • sublīmitās
  • sublīmitus
  • līmen
  • English sublime
  • English sublimate

Usage notes

Döderlein treats it among the words for high, beside the general altus.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper

Descendants

Cite this entry

“Sublimis.” Etymologically, 15 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/sublimis. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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