seraphic

English

Alternative forms

• seraphical (archaic)
• seraphicall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Medieval Latin seraphicus, from Late Latin seraphīm, seraphīn, from Hebrew שָׂרָף (saráf, “seraph”). By surface analysis, seraph +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈɹæf.ɪk/
• Rhymes: -æfɪk
• Hyphenation: se‧raf‧ic

Adjective

seraphic (comparative more seraphic, superlative most seraphic)

1. Of or relating to a seraph or the seraphim.

   the Seraphic Doctor, title given to the Italian medieval theologian Bonaventure

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 536–539:

     Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld / Th’ imperial Enſign, which full high advanc’t / Shon like a Meteor ſtreaming to the Wind / With Gemms and Golden luſtre rich imblaz’d, / Seraphic arms and Trophies : all the while / Sonorous metal blowing Martial ſounds […]

   • 1739, John Wesley, “God’s Greatness”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 4th edition, Bristol: Felix Farley (1743), page 108:

     Ye Hoſts that to his Courts belong, / Cherubic Quires, Seraphic Flames, / Awake the everlaſting Song.

2. Pure and sublime; angelic.
   • 1684, Aphra Behn, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister‎^[1], London: Randal Taylor, pages 90–91:

     A thousand times he was like to have denyed all, but durst not defame the most sacred Idol of his Soul: Sometimes he thought his Uncle would be generous, and think it fit to give him Silvia; but that Thought was too Seraphick to remain a Moment in his Heart.

   • 1782, Thomas Pennant, The Journey from Chester to London‎^[2], London: B. White, Part 2, p. 407:

     Their passion seems to have been of the seraphic kind. She devoted herself to religion, and persuaded him to do the same.

   • 1864, Robert Browning, “Gold Hair”, in Dramatis Personæ‎^[3], London: Chapman & Hall, page 27:

     Too white, for the flower of life is red;
     Her flesh was the soft, seraphic screen
     Of a soul that is meant (her parents said)
     To just see earth, and hardly be seen,
     And blossom in Heaven instead.

   • 1958, T. H. White, chapter 5, in The Once and Future King, London: Collins, published 1959:

     She had a seraphic smile on her face.

   • 2012 January 25, Paul Lester, “Schoolboy Q (No 1,193)”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

     So instead of Tesfaye’s seraphic warble, Hanley offers earthier, gruffer tones: you get the impression, considering the casual sexism and more conventional machismo on display here, that the rarefied, stylised and feminised would be unacceptable in his world.

Translations

relating to the seraphim

• French: séraphique (fr)
• Italian: serafico (it)
• Polish: seraficki (pl), seraficzny (pl)
• Portuguese: seráfico

pure and sublime

• Bulgarian: ангелски (bg) (angelski)
• Portuguese: seráfico

Anagrams

• aspheric, charpies, parchesi, sphæric