ambrosial
English edit
Etymology edit
Partly from ambrosia and partly from Latin ambrosius, + -al.[1]
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
ambrosial (comparative more ambrosial, superlative most ambrosial)
- (Greek mythology) Pertaining to or worthy of the gods.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- And whilst he slept she [Venus] over him would spred / Her mantle, colour’d like the starry skyes, / And her soft arme lay underneath his hed, / And with ambrosiall kisses bathe his eyes [...]
- Succulently sweet or fragrant; balmy, divine.
- 1607, [Barnabe Barnes], The Divils Charter: A Tragædie Conteining the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the Sixt. […], London: Printed by G[eorge] E[ld] for Iohn Wright, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:
- 1798 July, Walter Savage Landor, “Book VI”, in Gebir; a Poem: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxforshire: […] Slatter and Munday; and sold by R. S. Kirby, […], published 1803, →OCLC, page 107:
- While thus she spake, / She toucht his eye-lashes with libant lip / And breath'd ambrosial odours; […]
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXVIII, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- [T]his young hero, rising from his bed, proceeded to decorate his beautiful person, and shave his ambrosial chin […]
- 1826, J. S. Byerley, “You Taught Me Love”, in The Universal Songster, Volume 3:
- By your cheek of vermil hue, / By your lip’s ambrosial dew, / By your soft and languid eye, / By your swelling bosom’s sigh, / You taught me love.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
succulently sweet or fragrant
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References edit
- ^ “ambrosial, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
