| 释义 |
sublimity|səˈblɪmɪtɪ|
[ad. L. sublīmitas, -tātem, f. sublīmis sublime: see -ity. Cf. F. sublimité, etc.]
The state or quality of being sublime.
†1. High or lofty position, height. Obs.
1563Homilies ii. Agst. Peril Idol. ii. H h iv, When Images are placed in Temples, and set in honorable sublimitie, and begin once to be worshipped. 1601Holland Pliny ii. xvi. I. 11 The other cause of their [sc. the planets] sublimities is, for that [etc.]. 1665Sir T. Herbert Trav. (1677) 192 The subtility of the air and the sublimity of those Hills, which he says surpass the Alps. 1688Holme Armoury iii. iii. 137/2 Geometrical Terms for their Plots, Figures, [etc.]. Sublimities, the heights or highness of things.
†2. High dignity of office, vocation, or the like.
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. iv. 56 Being held with admiration of their own sublimitie and honor. a1656Ussher Power of Princes i. (1661) 43 The Regal sublimity is constituted by God. a1700Evelyn Diary 12 June 1650, He magnified the sublimity of the calling. a1727Newton Chronol. Amended ii. (1728) 226 Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion.
†b. A highly placed person. Obs.
1610Boys Exp. Domin. Ep. & Gosp. Wks. (1629) 163 Soueraigne Sublimities on earth are Gods among men.
†c. A high or dignified status. Obs.
1643Prynne Sov. Power Parl. i. 41 If we be profitable servants, why doe we envy the eternall gaines of our Lord for our temporall sublimities or Prerogatives?
d. The status of one whose title is ‘Sublime’; used with poss. pron. as a title of honour; in later use chiefly applied to the Sultan of Turkey or to the Sublime Porte.
So med.L. sublimitas.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 165, I beyng a Scholasticall panion, obtestate your sublimitie, to extoll myne infirmitie. 1589[? Nashe] Almond for Parrat Ded. 1 Which if your sublimitie accept in good part,..I am yours. 1820Byron Juan iv. xci, In the Dardanelles, Waiting for his Sublimity's firman. 1892Sat. Rev. 22 Oct. 466/1 Its Sublimity was unable to perceive any violation of the Treaty of Berlin.
3. Loftiness or grandeur of nature, character, conduct, or action; high excellence.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531), 208 b, The length, the brede, the deepnes, and the sublimite or hye excellence of the crosse of Chryst. [See Eph. iii. 18, Vulg.]. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. 181 Those things, which..for height and sublimitie of matter..wee are not able to reach vnto. 1614Raleigh Hist. World i. i. 11 In respect of Gods incomprehensible sublimitie, and puritie. 1655M. Carter Honor Rediv. (1660) 17 [Painting] hath been for its sublimity reckoned..among the liberall Sciences. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 343 That, for truth and sublimity of doctrine, no book or system in the whole world came up to the holy scriptures. a1812Buckminster Serm. (1827) 36 Is there any thing to be learned..from the sublimity of the character, which is so much a subject of taste? 1851‘L. Mariotti’ Italy 29 In 1846, France had not reached the acme of republican sublimity. 1870Mozley Univ. Serm. iii. (1876) 67 In the Christian doctrine of a future state..the real belief in the doctrine goes together with..the moral sublimity of the state. 1874L. Stephen Hours in Libr. (1892) I. v. 192 The genuine old Puritan spirit ceases to be picturesque only because of its sublimity.
b. An instance of this; a sublime thing or being.
1642Milton Apol. Smect. 17 Knowledge and vertue, with such abstracted sublimities as these. a1715Burnet Own Time (1766) I. 86 They..seemed to carry their devotions to a greater sublimity than others did. Ibid. 189 He loved to talk of great sublimities in religion. 1818Byron Ch. Har. iv. liv, The particle of those sublimities Which have relapsed to chaos. 1829I. Taylor Enthus. ii. (1867) 27 Those false sublimities of an enthusiastic pietism. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. i. x, When such exhibition could appear a propriety, next door to a sublimity.
4. Loftiness of conception, sentiment, language, style, or treatment.
1624Gataker Transubst. 103 That subtilty and sublimitie of wit, that Jerome commandeth in Ephrems workes. 1676Hobbes Iliad Pref. (1686) 5 The Sublimity of a Poet, which is that Poetical Fury which the Readers for the most part call for. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. 1 Cor. ii. 6 Sublimity and accurateness of Speech. 1781Cowper Table-T. 644 In him..Sublimity and Attic taste, combin'd. 1790Paley Horæ Paul. i. 7 Bursts of rapture and of unparalleled sublimity. 1841W. Spalding Italy I. 158 Polycletus,..a fellow-pupil of Phidias,..did not reach the sublimity of his rival in the representation of divinity. 1896Duke of Argyll Philos. Belief 280 It is impossible to deny the sublimity of this conception.
5. That quality in external objects which awakens feelings of awe, reverence, lofty emotion, a sense of power, or the like.
1779Johnson L.P., Cowley (1868) 9 Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion. 1787Polwhele Engl. Orator iii. 512 His Voice Commanding..stern His Aspect and terrific..Sublimity his every Nod Attended. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps iii. §9. 72 This expedient of continued series forms the sublimity of arcades and aisles. 1876M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. x, Earth's loveliness or heaven's sublimity.
b. A sublime feature; a sublime expanse.
1819in Corr. Lady Lyttelton (1912) 214 The sublimities of the Alps. a1853Robertson Lect. i. (1858) 19 His character had been moulded by the sublimities of the forms of the outward nature. a1869Lowell Rhoecus 157 The sky, With all its bright sublimity of stars.
6. The state of emotion produced by the perception or contemplation of the sublime.
1739Hume Hum. Nat. II. 282 Any great elevation of place communicates a kind of pride or sublimity of imagination. c1791Encycl. Brit. (1797) VIII. 107/2 The emotions of grandeur and sublimity are nearly allied. 1887A. Bain On Teaching Engl. vi. 100 The Emotion termed Sublimity is connected with vastness of Power.
7. A high degree or standard, a height; with the, the highest degree, height, summit, acme.
1637Earl of Monmouth tr. Malvezzi's Romulus & Tarquin 241 Bounding upon madnesse, it [sc. Melancholy] brings men to a sublimity, out of which one cannot passe. a1667Jer. Taylor (Ogilvie 1882), The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living, which are to be desired when dying. 1812Coleridge Friend (1818) III. 34 There belong to it sublimities of virtues which all may attain, and which no man can transcend. 1823Lamb Guy Faux in Eliana (1867) 20, I must make more haste; I shall not else climb the sublimity of this impiety. Ibid. 21 Such a sublimity of malice. 1883tr. Stepniak's Undergr. Russia Introd. 42 He combines in himself the two sublimities of human grandeur: the martyr and the hero.
†b. A supreme or extreme phrase. Obs.
1651N. Bacon Disc. Gov. Eng. ii. viii. (1739) 47 A qualified Legiance, without those sublimities of absolute, indefinite, immutable, &c.
Hence suˈblimityship, as a mock title.
1858Lytton What will He do i. xvii, Her Serene Sublimityship, Lady Selina Vipont. |