sublime

Definitions

From Latin sublimis ('raised on high'), which Romans linked to sub- (up to) + limen (lintel, the top beam of a doorway). The image is of rising right up to the top of the door. From 'reaching the very highest point' came the meaning of supreme grandeur — beauty so great it lifts you to a threshold of awe.

Why It Means This

Sublime hides the doorway threshold inside a word about grandeur. Latin sublimis meant 'lofty, raised up,' which ancient grammarians tied to limen, the lintel over a door — to be sublime was to rise all the way to the top of the doorway. In the 18th century, philosophers like Edmund Burke gave it a precise sense: the sublime is beauty mixed with awe and even terror — vast mountains, stormy seas — overwhelming in a way the merely pretty is not.

Common Collocations

• 1.sublime beauty崇高之美
• 2.sublime view壮美的景色
• 3.from the sublime to the ridiculous从崇高到荒诞
• 4.sublime music崇高的音乐

Example Sentences

• 1.

  From the summit, the view was simply sublime.

• 2.

  Her performance reached sublime heights of emotion.

• 3.

  The film moves from the sublime to the ridiculous.