sublimitas

Forms

sublīmitās f (genitive sublīmitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin sublīmis (“high, lofty”) + -tās.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan.^[4] Its first authors in the OLD are of the 1st century AD: Columella, of the height of a building to be divided into storeys, and Seneca, of an elevated state of mind.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is height, of a building, a body (Quintilian), gourds or the moon (Pliny the Elder).^[2][4] Figuratively it meant loftiness of mind or character: Pliny the Elder praises the incomparable magnanimity Caesar showed in burning Pompey's correspondence unread.^[2][4] Quintilian and Pliny the Younger use it of loftiness of style, as of heroic verse and of Plato.^[2][4]

Christian writers used it for God, as Cyprian does, and it became an honorific title, “your Sublimity”, in Cassiodorus.^[5][6] In medieval Latin it also meant spiritual height and exalted rank.^[7] Stelten gives “high station”.^[8] English sublimity comes from it.^[9]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the height of a building.^[2][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of an elevated state of mind.^[2][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of Caesar's magnanimity.^[2][3]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of loftiness of style.^[2][3]
• beginning of 3rd century–258 AD – Cyprian uses it of God.^[5][3]
• c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it as an honorific title.^[5][3]
• early 15th century – English borrows sublimity.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Height, elevation; a high place.^[2][4]
2. An elevated state of mind; loftiness of character, magnanimity.^[2][4]
3. Loftiness of style, grandeur, sublimity.^[2][4]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) God, the Most High.^[5]
5. (Late Latin) An honorific title (vestra sublimitas).^[5][6]
6. (Medieval Latin) Exalted rank.^[7][8]

Related words

• English sublimity

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com