sublimate

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English

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WOTD – 3 September 2006

Etymology

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From Middle English sublymate, from Latin sublīmātus, past participle of sublīmāre (“to raise, elevate”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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sublimate (third-person singular simple present sublimates, present participle sublimating, simple past and past participle sublimated)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (chemistry) To heat (a substance) in a container so as to convert it into a gas which then condenses in solid form on cooler parts of the container.
      Synonym: sublime
      1. (generally) To change (a solid substance) into a gas without breaking down or passing through the liquid state by heating it gently. [from 16th c.]
        Synonym: sublime
      2. (chiefly passive voice) To change (a substance) from a gas into a solid through sublimation.
    2. (by extension)
      1. (figurative) To refine (something) until it disappears or loses all meaning.
      2. (figurative, psychoanalysis) To modify (the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct) in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of (such an instinct) into some acceptable activity.
        • 1969, Susan Sontag, “What’s Happening in America”, in Styles of Radical Will, Kindle edition, Penguin Modern Classics, published 2009, →ISBN, page 194:
          Foreigners extol the American "energy" […] Basically it is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism and acquisitiveness.
        • 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 7:
          When he got home from the parade, however, Professor Solanka was seized by melancholy, his usual secret sadness, which he sublimated into the public sphere. Something was amiss with the world. The optimistic peace-and-love philosophy of his youth having given him up, he no longer knew how to reconcile himself to an increasingly phoney […] reality.
      3. (chiefly figurative, archaic) To obtain (something) through, or as if through, sublimation.
      4. (chiefly figurative, archaic) To purify or refine (a substance).
        • 1667, attributed to Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. […], London: […] R. Norton for T. Garthwait, […], →OCLC:
          The precepts of Christianity are […] so apt […] to cleanse and sublimate the more gross and corrupt.
    3. (by extension) Synonym of sublime
      1. (also figurative) To raise (someone) to a high office or status; to dignify, to elevate, to exalt.
      2. (figurative) To raise something to a state of excellence; to improve.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. (chemistry) Of a substance: to change from a solid into a gas without passing through the liquid state, with or without being heated.
      Synonym: sublime
      Coordinate term: evaporate
    2. (chemistry) Of a substance: to change from a gas into a solid without passing through the liquid state.
      Synonym: sublime
      Coordinate term: condense
    3. (figurative, psychoanalysis) To modify the natural expression of a sexual or primitive instinct in a socially acceptable manner; to divert the energy of such an instinct into some acceptable activity.
    4. (figurative) Synonym of sublime (“to become higher in quality or status; to improve”)
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Translations

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Translations to be checked

Noun

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sublimate (plural sublimates)

  1. (chemistry) A product obtained by sublimation.

See also

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Anagrams

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Ido

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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sublimate

  1. adverbial present passive participle of sublimar

Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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sublimate

  1. inflection of sublimare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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sublimate f pl

  1. feminine plural of sublimato

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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sublīmāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of sublīmō

Spanish

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Verb

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sublimate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of sublimar combined with te
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