sibylline
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Latin sibyllinus,[1] Sibillinus,[2] from Sibylla.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sibylline (not comparable)
- Of or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books. [from late 16th c.]
- Synonym: sibyllic
- 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra:
- Cleopatra immediately comes down to the chair of state; seizes Ptolemy and drags him out of his seat; then takes his place in the chair. Ftatateeta seats herself on the step of the loggia, and sits there, watching the scene with sybilline intensity.
- 1922 August, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter 23, in The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
- But directly she had closed the door behind her, Mother Théot's manner underwent a chance. Here the broad light of day appeared to divest her of all her sybilline attributes. She became just an ugly old woman, wrinkled and hook-nosed, dressed in shabby draperies that were grey with age and dirt, and with claw-like hands that looked like the talons of a bird of prey.
- 1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 42:
- Another early form of rhapsodomancy is represented by the sibylline books.
- (by extension) Having oracle-like predicting powers, clairvoyant.
- (by extension) Occult, mysterious.
- Synonym: enigmatic
- Excessively and exorbitantly expensive. (In allusion to the Sibyl who sold three books to Tarquinius Superbus at the price of the original nine.)
Noun[edit]
sibylline (plural sibyllines)
- One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
clairvoyant
|
mysterious
|
References[edit]
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sibylline”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ “sibylline”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sibylline