| 释义 |
seraphic, a. and n.|səˈræfɪk|
Also 7 seraphique, 7–8 seraphick, 8 serafic.
[a. eccl. L. seraphicus, f. seraph-im: see seraphim. Cf. F. séraphique, Sp. seráfico, Pg. seraphico, It. serafico.]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to the seraphim.
1632Massinger Maid of Hon. v. i, Seraphique Angells Clap their celestiall wings in heavenly plaudits. 1667Milton P.L. i. 794 The great Seraphic Lords and Cherubim In close recess and secret conclave sat. 1727De Foe Syst. Magic i. iii. (1840) 81 This supposition..places him [the Devil] beneath the dignity of his seraphic original. 1755Young Centaur vi. (1757) IV. 275 A being big with..hope..of adding melody to seraphic choirs, in ceaseless Hallelujahs to their Eternal King. 1850A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 238 Seven beautiful seraphic or allegorical figures.
2. Of attributes: Resembling what pertains to the seraphim; worthy of a seraph; ecstatically adoring.
1659Boyle Some Motives Love of God 9 This Love I have taken the freedome to style Seraphick Love, borrowing the name from..those nobler Spirits of the Cælestiall Hierarchie, whose Name..expresses them to be of a flaming Nature. 1683Norris Idea Happin. 35 There is a more peculiar Acceptation of the Love of God proper to this place. And it is that which we call Seraphic. By which I understand..that Love of God which is the effect of an intense Contemplation of him. 1695Blackmore Pr. Arth. i. 44 Nor did his Arts in vain weak Man assail, His false Seraphick Tongue and Charms prevail. a1711Ken Hymns Festiv. Poet. Wks. 1821 II. 191 Seraphick Ardour dwelling in each Vein, The Majestatick Presence in the Brain. 1778Warner in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) III. 336 Mr. Mudge..had a most seraphic finger for the harpsichord. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. viii, On the thick Hyperborean, cherubic reasoning, seraphic eloquence were lost. 1846De Quincey Shelley in Tait's Mag. Jan. 29 Many people remarked something seraphic in the expression of his features. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cix, Seraphic intellect and force To seize and throw the doubts of man. 1859Geo. Eliot A. Bede vi, Dinah's seraphic gentleness of expression. 1872Calverley Fly Leaves (1884) 97 Her voice was sweet..Her singing quite seraphic. 1884W. S. Lilly in Contemp. Rev. Feb. 263 That religious romanticism which paints for us a mediæval period full of seraphic sweetness.
†b. ? Concerned with sublime objects. Obs.
a1697Aubrey Brief Lives, Dunstan (1898) I. 243 Meredith Lloyd tells me that, three or 400 yeares ago, chymistry was in a greater perfection, much, then now; their proces was then more seraphique and universall: now they looke only after medicines.
3. Resembling a seraph, either in beauty or in fervour of exalted devotion.
1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 121 That seraphic dame, Mrs. Rowe, also painted. 1807Crabbe Sir Eustace Grey 71 Her morals [show'd] the seraphic saint. 1845Disraeli Sybil iv. x, That seraphic being, whose lustre even now haunts my vision. 1870― Lothair xiii, Seraphic saints, and gorgeous scenes by Tintoret.
b. Of discourse, actions, appearance: Showing ecstasy of devout contemplation.
a1668Davenant Play-ho. i. (1673) 76 A spiritual Musician too With his seraphick Colloquies exprest In stilo recitativo. 1668Pepys Diary 24 May, A very good and seraphic kind of sermon, too good for an ordinary congregation. 1884Punch 18 Oct. 191/1 The seraphic look of personal affection that mantled his brow.
4. Special collocations: seraphic doctor, a title given to St. Bonaventura (in Spain also popularly to St. Teresa); Seraphic Father, a title given to St. Francis; seraphic friar, a Franciscan, hence seraphic habit, seraphic order; seraphic hymn, the Sanctus (see Isa. vi. 3).
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., In the Schools, St. Bonaventure is call'd The *Seraphic Doctor, from his abundant Zeal and Fervour. 1834K. H. Digby Mores Cath. v. v. 153 The seraphic doctor observes that [etc.]. 1894Mrs. G. C. Graham S. Teresa I. iv. 179 note, Teresa, by a definitive decree of the Tribunal of the Rota, is formally declared a Doctor of the Church. The ‘seraphic doctor’, the antonomasia by which she is as often as not referred to in Spain, relates to this, and not to the Doctor's degree bestowed upon her, after her death, by the University of Salamanca.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v., St. Francis, the Founder of the Cordeliers and Franciscans, is called the *Seraphic Father, in Memory of a Vision he saw on Mount Alverna,..when..he saw a Seraph glide rapidly from Heaven upon him; which impress'd on him certain Stigmata or Marks. 1884Tablet 11 Oct. 592/1 The Feast of the Seraphic Father St. Francis was celebrated with great solemnity.
1826Southey Lett. to Butler 514 The *Seraphic and Cherubic friars.
1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 143 Those who take that habit, which they call *Seraphick, are not to be numbered among Men, but are become Angels.
1796Southey Lett. Spain (1799) 418 Of the Mendicants the most numerous is the *Serafic, or Franciscan order.
B. n.
†1.
a. [= eccl. L. seraphicus.] A Franciscan friar.
b. Allusively applied in the sense of zealot.
1659Gauden Tears Ch. ii. xxxii. 256 Many high Seraphicks and supercilious Separatists. 1699R. L'Estrange Erasm. Colloq. (1725) 265 They are commanded to wear the Coat and Hood (for so say the Seraphicks).
2. seraphics: rapturous moods or discourses.
1709Swift & Addison Tatler No. 32 ⁋2 To hear her talk Seraphicks, and run over Norris, and Moor, and Milton. 1789C. Smith Ethelinde (1814) I. 182 And the angel will descend from her seraphics.
Hence seˈraphicness. rare.
1727Bailey vol. II, Seraphickness, the being of the seraphick Nature. 1888W. D. Lighthall Young Seigneur 71 No romantic seraphicness glowed upon her features. |