sublimitas Latin · revision 34773

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1st century AD|origins=la sublīmis}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [sʊbˈliː.mɪ.taːs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [subˈliː.mi.tas]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sublīmitās''' ''f'' (genitive sublīmitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sublīmis|-tās|t1=high, lofty]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Lewis and Short call it post-Augustan.^(Lewis & Short 1879) 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.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its first sense is height, of a building, a body (Quintilian), gourds or the moon (Pliny the Elder).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Figuratively it meant loftiness of mind or character: Pliny the Elder praises the incomparable magnanimity Caesar showed in burning Pompey's correspondence unread.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Quintilian and Pliny the Younger use it of loftiness of style, as of heroic verse and of Plato.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ Christian writers used it for God, as Cyprian does, and it became an honorific title, “your Sublimity”, in Cassiodorus.^(Conte 2010)^(Niermeyer 1976) In medieval Latin it also meant spiritual height and exalted rank.^(DMLBS) Stelten gives “high station”.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|sublimity]] comes from it.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the height of a building.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of an elevated state of mind.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of Caesar's magnanimity.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of loftiness of style.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * beginning of 3rd century–258 AD – Cyprian uses it of God.^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 485–c. 580 AD – Cassiodorus uses it as an honorific title.^(Conte 2010)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * early 15th century – English borrows [[m|en|sublimity]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|height|alt=Height]], elevation; a high place.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # An elevated state of mind; loftiness of character, [[m|en|magnanimity]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Loftiness of style, grandeur, [[m|en|sublimity]].^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # ''(Ecclesiastical Latin)'' God, the Most High.^(Conte 2010)

+ # ''(Late Latin)'' An honorific title (''vestra sublimitas'').^(Conte 2010)^(Niermeyer 1976)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' Exalted rank.^(DMLBS)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|sublimity]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}