Sublimes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To raise something to an exceptional level of beauty or value while also altering it into a more refined form through sublimation
2. To enhance and glorify objects or ideas, resulting in a transformation into a higher, more admirable state
3. To elevate something to a grand or noble status ; to convert a solid directly into gas without passing through a liquid state

Etymology: "Sublimes" is simply the third-person singular form of the verb "sublime," so the history belongs to that verb and its adjective. The verb entered English in Middle English from Middle French "sublimer," which came from Latin "sublimare," meaning to raise up, elevate, or soar. Its earliest senses were lofty ones: to exalt, extol, or honour someone or something. The chemical sense came from alchemy. Medieval alchemists used the word for refining a substance by heating it so it turned to vapour in a closed vessel, then cooling it back into a pure solid. The idea of "raising up" a material from one state to a purer one carried over into the modern meaning of passing directly from solid to gas. Both senses rest on the Latin adjective "sublimis," built from "sub-" (up to, under) and a root possibly linked to "limen," a threshold. So the verb's grand and scientific meanings grow from the same image of rising upward.

Synonyms: elevates, ennobles, exalts, uplifts, magnifies

Antonyms: demeans, degrades, lowers, belittles, trivializes