Sublime

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Sublime

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Nov 07, 2014 12:13 am

• sublime •


Pronunciation: sê-blaimHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To change something from a solid state to vapor or vice versa, usually in order to purify it. 2. To elevate or lift to a higher plane; to raise upward, as the sun might sublime the morning dew.

Notes: Today's word is more often used as an adjective, but it is, in fact, one of many words in the English vocabulary that can serve as (1) a verb, (2) an adjective meaning "elevated, exalted, uplifted", and (3) a noun meaning "things elevated, exalted, uplifted", as in the phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous".

In Play: In chemistry, substances are sublimed to create compounds or remove impurities: "Ammonium chloride may be obtained by subliming a mixture of sulphate of ammonium with common salt." Aside from chemistry, we can find places where both senses of today's word fit our own lives: "Viveca sublimes the burdens of her personal life into care for others." And, of course, we can but hope that our Good Words sublime the speech of all our readers to even loftier heights.

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Medieval Latin sublimare "to refine, purify, sublime" which devolved from Latin sublimare "to lift up, raise, soar". Sublimare contains sublime "on high, aloft", the adverb of sublimis "lofty, raised, uplifted". Sublimis is a combination of sub "under, up to" + limes, limit- "boundary, frontier". The root here, limes "limit", is the origin of English limit. Since Proto-Indo-European [t] becamse [th] in Germanic languages it became lithus "limb" in Old English, whence the sense of bending which accompanied this word on down to its form in present-day English: lithe. (We thank David Hegge, who sublimed our series a little more by contributing today's Good Word.)
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Re: Sublime

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Nov 07, 2014 2:54 pm

This word always reminds me of the images
in Church stained glass windows. Supposedly uplifting.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Sublime

Postby Slava » Fri Nov 07, 2014 4:58 pm

Lest we forget, subliminal is also related. As in unnoticed but effective messages; ads, stained-glass windows, etc.
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Re: Sublime

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Nov 07, 2014 7:20 pm

"Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Re: Sublime

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Nov 07, 2014 9:24 pm

Expanded my vocabulary a bit today. I only knew of its use as in Philip's example.
pl

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Re: Sublime

Postby Audiendus » Mon May 15, 2023 10:59 pm

Meaning: 1. To change something from a solid state to vapor or vice versa, usually in order to purify it.
I checked the meaning, and it seems that "or vice versa" is incorrect. The reverse process (a change from gas directly to solid) is called deposition, or (less commonly) desublimation.

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Re: Sublime

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue May 16, 2023 7:51 am

In point of fact, dictionaries vary on this point and, since I'm no chemist, I rely on dictionaries older than mine for my definitions.

According to Merriam Webster, Audiendus is correct:
to cause to pass directly from the solid to the vapor state and condense back to solid form.
If true, I will change my or to and.

According to American Heritage, he isn't:
To be transformed directly from the solid to the gaseous state or from the gaseous to the solid state without becoming a liquid.
I usually bow to the grand grandfather of them all, the Oxford English Dictionary, which has this to say on the matter
Of a substance: to be converted directly from a solid to a gaseous state by gradual heating; (also more widely, esp. in later use) to undergo a change of state from solid to gas (or vice versa) without passing through the liquid phase. †Occasionally transitive (reflexive).
If Audiendus can cite a more reliable resource (e.g. a chemistry dictionary--or him- or herself if they are a chemist), I will concede the point and amend my entry.
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Re: Sublime

Postby Audiendus » Tue May 16, 2023 12:40 pm

Thanks. I am not a chemist. But I thought it odd that two opposite processes (without reversal) should share the same word!

See, for example, Wikipedia (which allows the Merriam Webster meaning as an alternative), ThoughtCo chemistry dictionary, Sciencenotes.org chemistry dictionary, and Collins English Dictionary.

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Re: Sublime

Postby Slava » Tue May 16, 2023 1:15 pm

Dictionary.com adds to the confusion, as its definition requires both steps:
verb (used without object), sub·limed, sub·lim·ing.
Chemistry. to volatilize from the solid state to a gas, and then condense again as a solid without passing through the liquid state.
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Re: Sublime

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue May 16, 2023 4:16 pm

Thanks. I am not a chemist. But I thought it odd that two opposite processes (without reversal) should share the same word!

Such words a called contranyms and there are quite a few of them.
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Re: Sublime

Postby Audiendus » Tue May 16, 2023 10:26 pm

Wiktionary gives the verb sublime as a synonym of sublimate. And here is what it says about sublimate:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sublimate#Verb

According to this, it can be used either transitively or intransitively to refer to a solid-to-gas change. The 'purification' meaning (which would be solid-to-gas and back again) is described as 'transitive, archaic'.

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Re: Sublime

Postby George Kovac » Thu May 18, 2023 7:49 pm

Wiktionary gives the verb sublime as a synonym of sublimate.


What crazy twists one word can take. “Sublime” = “sublimate”? Well, it’s a matter of context.

I attended an all-boys Catholic high school. Item #1 on the agenda of the priests who ran the place was sublimation. Everywhere, not just the in chem lab. Sports, sports, sports! Actually any activity that would keep the boys busy and distracted from dealing with the primary obsession of normal teenage boys. Umm… memo to the cursed priests that ran the place: sublimation is not a mature, long term, nor effective policy. We boys could have used better guidance (and role models) on the issue.

Most of us boys, as adults having abandoned the gospel of sublimation, found that life can be sublime.
"Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language." Zia Haider Rahman, New York Times 4/8/2016


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