empyrean
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin empȳreus, from Ancient Greek ἐμπύριος (empúrios), from ἐν (en, “in”) + πῦρ (pûr, “fire”) (whence English pyre).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
empyrean (plural empyreans)
- (historical) The highest heaven, supposed by the ancients to be a region of pure light and fire or else composed of ether, and sometimes seen as the dwelling-place of God or other divine beings; the highest celestial sphere according to ancient and medieval astronomy.
- 1674, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 192:
- So ſung they, and the Empyrean rung,
With Halleluiahs: […]
- 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, To the Moon, page 14:
- Perchance they mark
Where India's cliffs the trembling cloud invade,
Or Andes with his fiery banner flouts
The empyrean,...
- 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “[Experiments.] [Experiments] In Quantity”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 174:
- Milton, a name to resound for ages; / Whose titan angels, Gabriel, Abdiel, / Starr'd from Jehovah's gorgeous armouries, / Tower, the deep-domed empyrëan / Rings to the roar of an angel onset— […]
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- I could have spoken in blank verse of Shakesperian beauty, all sorts of great ideas flashed through my mind; it was as though the bonds of my flesh had been loosened and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of its native power.
- 1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Two Poets of Saffron Park”, in The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 13:
- This particular evening, if it remembered for nothing else, will be remembered in that place for its strange sunset. […] The whole was so close about the earth, as if to express nothing but a violent secrecy. The very empyrean seemed to be a secret.
- 1917, Upton Sinclair, “Captivating Ideals”, in The Profits of Religion […] [1], book 5:
- Like all religious thinkers, he carries with his scholar's equipment a pair of metaphysical wings, wherewith at any moment he may soar into the empyrean, out of reach of vulgar materialists, like you and me.
Related terms edit
Adjective edit
empyrean (not comparable)
- Of the sky or the heavens, and particularly relating to the highest celestial sphere in premodern cosmology; celestially refined.
- 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 270, page 71:
- In th' Empyrean Heaven, (the bleſs'd Abode) / The Thrones and the Dominions proſtrate lie, / Not daring to behold their angry God: / And an huſh'd ſilence damps the tuneful sky.
- 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Saeculare:
- Yet upward she [the goddess] incessant flies;
Resolv’d to reach the high empyrean Sphere.
- 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] [T. Miller] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 91, lines 821–822:
- Lispings empyrean will I sometime teach / Thine honied tongue— […]
- 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
- […] it was like those gods of Epicurus, who saw the doings of men from their empyrean heights and had no might to alter one smallest particle of what occurred.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
the highest heaven
References edit
- “empyrean”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “empyrean”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volumes II (D–Hoon), New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
