sublime: [16] Sublime was borrowed from Latin sublīmis ‘lofty, exalted’. This was a compound adjective formed from the prefix sub- ‘under’ and probably līmen ‘lintel, threshold’ (a relative of līmes ‘boundary’, from which English gets limit). Sub- here probably has the force of ‘up to’, so that the word denotes etymologically ‘as high as the top of a door’. The same elements were used in the 1880s to coin subliminal, as a direct rendering of the German psychological term unter der schwelle des bewusstseins ‘below the threshold of consciousness’. => limit
sublime (adj.)
1580s, "expressing lofty ideas in an elevated manner," from Middle French sublime (15c.), or directly from Latin sublimis "uplifted, high, borne aloft, lofty, exalted, eminent, distinguished," possibly originally "sloping up to the lintel," from sub "up to" + limen "lintel, threshold, sill" (see limit (n.)). The sublime (n.) "the sublime part of anything, that which is stately or imposing" is from 1670s. For Sublime Porte, former title of the Ottoman government, see Porte.
双语例句
1. the book celebrated the sublime joys of physical love.
本书赞美了性爱带来的无比美妙的愉悦。
来自柯林斯例句
2. At times the show veered from the sublime to the ridiculous.
有时表演会突然从高雅而变得低俗。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He displayed a sublime indifference to the distinction between right and wrong.
他对是非之间的差别根本就无动于衷。
来自柯林斯例句
4. She elevated every rare small success to the sublime.
她把每一个极不起眼的小小成功都夸大成非凡的成就。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The administration's sublime incompetence is probably temporary.
