sibylline

English

Michelangelo’s rendering of the Cumaean Sibyl

Alternative forms

• sybilline

Etymology

From Latin sibyllinus, Sibillinus, from Sibylla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪbɪlaɪn/ (UK)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Adjective

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

sibylline (plural sibyllines)

1. One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.

Derived terms

• Sibylline Oracles

Translations

pertaining to a sibyl

• Dutch: sibillijns (nl)
• French: sibyllin (fr) m
• Italian: sibillino (it)
• Swedish: sibyllinsk

clairvoyant

• Dutch: helderziend (nl), sibillijns (nl)
• Italian: sibillino (it)

mysterious

• German: sibyllinisch (de)
• Italian: sibillino (it)

Anagrams

• sybilline

French

Adjective

sibylline

1. feminine singular of sibyllin