Wiktionary

sibylline

English

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Michelangelo’s rendering of the Cumaean Sibyl

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Latin sibyllinus,[1] Sibillinus,[2] from Sibylla.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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sibylline (not comparable)

  1. 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.
    1. (by extension) Having oracle-like predicting powers, clairvoyant.
    2. (by extension) Occult, mysterious.
      Synonym: enigmatic
  2. Excessively and exorbitantly expensive. (In allusion to the Sibyl who sold three books to Tarquinius Superbus at the price of the original nine.)

Noun

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sibylline (plural sibyllines)

  1. One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “sibylline”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  2. ^ “sibylline”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

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French

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Adjective

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sibylline

  1. feminine singular of sibyllin
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