sublimationn.
/ˌsʌblᵻˈmeɪʃn/, U.S. /ˌsəbləˈmeɪʃən/ I. Senses relating to a physical process (cf. sublime v. I.).† 2. Medicine. = sublation n. 1. Obsolete. rare.
1.
a. Chemistry. The action or process of converting a solid substance by heating directly into vapour without liquefaction or decomposition, the vapour resolidifying on cooling; an instance of this. Also more widely (esp. in later use): a process by which a substance undergoes a change of state from solid to gas (or vice versa) without passing through the liquid phase.
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the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > chemical reactions or processes (named) > sublimation
sublimationa1393
sublimingc1405
altificationa1550
elevation1605
meteorismus1848
the world > matter > chemistry > physical chemistry > phases > [noun] > phase transitions > specific
sublimationa1393
fixation1393
liquefaction1477
fusion1555
condensation1614
congealing1762
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iv. l. 2517 He [sc. the alchemist] mot..kepe in his entencion The point of sublimacion.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 351 This is þe maner of sublimacioun, loke þou haue a strong vessel maad of glas þat it mowe dure in þe fier..& sette it in a furneis..& þat, þat cleueþ faste to þe couercle aboue, take it & kepe it.
a1475 Bk. Quinte Essence (1889) 4 Þe quint essencia þerof is naturaly incorruptible þe which ȝe schal drawe out by sublymacioun.
a1550 (c1477) T. Norton Ordinal of Alchemy (Sloane 1873) (1975) l. 2784 (MED) Longe vessellis to precipitacion, Both shorte & longe serue sublimacion.
1594 H. Plat Jewell House 89 Distillations, calcinations, and sublimations.
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. vii. 28 The common armoniac..in the forme of most white and salt meale, may be carried up into the cloudes by sublimation.
1657 Physical Dict. Sublimation, is a chymical operation, when the elevated matter in distillation, being carried to the highest part of the helm, and finding no passage forth, sticks to the sides thereof.
1719 J. Quincy Lexicon Physico-medicum (1722) 414 The Sublimation of Camphire, Benzoin, and Arsenick.
1867 C. L. Bloxam Chemistry 114 These crystals are moderately heated in an iron pan to deprive them of tar, and are finally purified by sublimation.
1880 N. Story-Maskelyne in Nature 1 Jan. 204/2 It is possible..that the condition for its [sc. carbon's] sublimation in the form of crystals..is one involving a combination of high temperature and high pressure.
1940 G. H. J. Adlam & L. S. Price Higher School Certificate Inorg. Chem. (ed. 2) xxiv. 200 The direct combination of ammonia, carbon dioxide and water vapour and subsequent sublimation produce a product known as sal volatile.
1969 Jrnl. Magn. Resonance 4 349 The product was separated and purified by successive sublimations.
1978 Sci. Amer. Apr. 144/3 Atmospheric ice crystals form by direct sublimation from air that is supersaturated with water.
2007 W. D. Brewer tr. M. Schwoerer & H. C. Wolf Org. Molecular Solids iii. 65 Sublimation under convection in a carrier gas can also be carried out in a closed circulation system as a method for growing large (cm), thin (μm), highly pure crystals.
b. Chemistry and Geology. A deposit of solid material formed from the vapour of a substance that has undergone sublimation (sense 1a); a sublimate.In later use chiefly with reference to geological processes (cf. sense 1d).In quot. 1652 in a figurative context.
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the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > chemical reactions or processes (named) > sublimation > solid product of
alcohol1543
sublimatea1626
sublimation1646
flores1663
mascagnite1868
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. iv. 82 A fat and unctuous sublimation in the earth concreted and fixed by salt and nitrous spirits. View more context for this quotation
1652 E. Benlowes Theophila xiii. xxxvi. 240 From pretious Limbeck sacred Loves distill Such Sublimations, as do fill Mindes with amazed Raptures of their Chimick Skill.
1788 J. H. de Magellan et al. Cronstedt's Ess. Syst. Mineral. (new ed.) I. 337 It is discovered not only in most part of the clays, but likewise in the sublimations at Solfatara near Naples.
1867 J. Hogg Microscope (ed. 6) i. iii. 214 Dr. Guy brought under the notice of microscopists a plan for preserving metallic sublimations.
1869 J. Phillips Vesuvius v. 152 Ferric chloride (muriate of iron) is found among the sublimations of Vesuvius.
1892 Daily News 3 Sept. 6/5 A magnificent lava-grotto all coated with beautiful sulphuric sublimations.
1919 D. N. Wadia Geol. India i. 26 Sublimations of sulphur on the walls of the crater point to a mild solfataric phase into which the volcano has declined.
2007 J. C. Eichelberger Volcanism & Subduction: Kamchatka Region iii. 367/1 Though the sulfur sublimations were recognized in the S2 crater, we could not observe any geothermal anomalies there.
c. Chemistry. The condition of having passed directly from the solid state to the vapour. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > gas > [noun] > fumes or vapour > condition as result of sublimation
sublimation1800
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > chemical reactions or processes (named) > sublimation > vapour as a result of
sublimation1800
1800 H. Davy Res. Nitrous Oxide 294 Phosphorus was sublimed by a heated wire in a jar filled with nitrous oxide, standing over warm mercury. In this state of sublimation an iron heated dull red was introduced to it by being rapidly passed through the mercury.
1856 D. Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xvi. 304 Products which issue in a state of sublimation from the craters of active volcanoes.
1888 Jrnl. Laryngol. & Rhinol. 2 483 The portions of the odorous materials that reached the nose were in a condition of sublimation, and they became precipitated in the moisture of the membranes.
1915 Mineral Industry 23 655 By taking advantage of the marcasite..in the ore and maintaining a condition of sublimation in the furnace, 50 tons of ore is being roasted with one-half cord of wood.
d. Geology. A process by which minerals vaporized deep in the earth are deposited at or near the surface.Not always distinguishable from sense 1a.
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the world > the earth > structure of the earth > formation of features > convulsion > [noun] > volcanic activity > emission of minerals
sublimation1805
1805 T. Weaver tr. A. G. Werner Treat. Fossils viii. 167 The ores formed in the beds of mountains exclude entirely all idea of their formation by means of exhalations or a kind of sublimation.
1829 Philos. Mag. 2nd Ser. 5 174 The conjecture, that galena in these veins has been in some instances supplied by sublimation from below.
1917 W. S. Bayley Descriptive Mineral. ii. 17 Minerals formed by sublimation are usually deposited as small, brilliant crystals on the surfaces of rocks or upon the walls of cavities and crevices in them.
1936 Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 44 281 A large part of the alkalis in the thermal waters is thus attributed..to sublimation from the magma.
2004 H.-R. Wenk & A. Bulakh Minerals xx. 344/1 The main economic deposits of sulfur are products of volcanic sublimation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > [noun] > parts or elements > middle part
sublation?1537
sublimation1599
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > urinary disorders > [noun] > cloud or pigment
sublation?1537
sublimation1599
nebula1655
nubecula1699
uroerythrin1845
uroglaucin1846
urrhodin1846
1599 Record's Urinal of Physicke (new ed.) v. sig. C8 But if it [sc. sediment] be so light, yt it swim in the middle region of the urine, then it is called the sublimation [1547 sublation] or swym.
1625 J. Hart Anat. Urines i. iii. 34 The urine in this disease was..variable and inconstant in the swimme and sublimation.
II. Extended uses.† 3. Elevation to a high or higher rank. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > [noun] > elevation or exaltation in rank
uprising1430
prelationa1450
sublimationc1450
ascendant1607
rise1608
superelevation1654
evection1658
elevation1701
c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 234 He was strykyn..with a hertelie ioy..when he hard tell of þe sublimacion of his fadur.
4.
a. Something which has been transformed into a higher, nobler, or more refined state; the purest or most concentrated product of, the quintessence; the height or acme of.
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the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > perfection > [noun] > peak of perfection
perfection1340
pointc1400
pinnaclec1450
firmament1526
tipe1548
vertical point1559
acmea1568
status1577
summity1588
sublimation1591
turret1593
topgallant1597
non ultra?1606
vertical1611
non plus ultra1647
ne ultraa1657
verticle1658
summit1661
ne plus ultra1664
ne plus1665
nonplus1670
tip-top1702
pink1720
sublime1748
eminencea1854
it1896
1591 G. B. A. F. tr. Discouery Subtiltie & Wisedome Italians xxix. 42 The sublimation of the Italian spirit is remarked to flie farre aboue all other nations of the world.
1608 M. Fotherby Fovre Serm. i. 23 The Vanity of Vanities is the most excellent Vanity, as it were the sublimation and quintessence of Vanity.
1691 A. Gavin Frauds Romish Monks (ed. 3) 287 That they may authorize their neat Thoughts and high Sublimations of Wit.
1694 R. South 12 Serm. II. 271 It is..the very Quintessence, and Sublimation of Vice, by which..the Malignity of many Actions is contracted into a little compass.
1831 D. E. Williams Life Sir T. Lawrence II. 37 The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, must be the sublimation aspired to.
1856 D. M. Mulock John Halifax I. xi. 248 His demeanour..was the sublimation of all manly courtesy.
1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd II. x. 110 That acme and sublimation of all dismal sounds, the bark of a fox.
1921 E. Paul & C. Paul tr. S. Zweig R. Rolland iv. v. 175 He is not an individual musician, the figure of one living in a particular generation; he is the sublimation of music as a whole.
1966 D. Echeverria Mirage in West ii. 77 He described the new American republic under the guise of a Greek colony..which was a sort of sublimation of all the best in Greek civilization.
2006 V. Nemoianu Triumph of Imperfection vii. 144 His heaven, filled with lights,..is the sublimation of a Catholic church.
b. The action or process of elevating something to a higher state or plane of existence; transformation into something higher, nobler, or more refined. Also: an instance of this.
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the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > perfection > [noun] > bringing to perfection
perfectinga1513
perfectioning1548
sublimation1599
perfectionating1695
perfectionizing1808
perfectionation1812
perfectionment1827
perfectation1832
perfectionizement1844
sublimification1886
1599 J. Davies Nosce Teipsum 24 She [sc. the soul] turnes Bodies to spirits by sublimation strange.
1615 T. Jackson Iustifying Faith iv. iii. viii. §5 By the assistance of that grace whose infusion alone must worke the sublimation.
a1652 J. Smith Select Disc. (1660) vii. iv. 309 That Perfection which they speak so much of..was nothing else but a mere sublimation of their own Natural Powers and Principles.
1755 E. Young Centaur 335 What an amazing, and almost deifying, sublimation of man!
1764 T. Reid Inq. Human Mind vii. 206 The new system by a kind of metaphysical sublimation converted all the qualities of matter into sensations.
1824 T. Jefferson Writings (1830) IV. 387 Every individual of my associates will look..to the sublimation of its [sc. the University's] character.
1866 T. N. Harper Peace through Truth 299 This supernatural sublimation of man's nature.
1930 Rotarian Jan. 50/1 Sublimation applied to social conditions is the characteristic business of constructive citizenship.
1986 Representations No. 15. 225 That sublimation of love which links Beauty to Truth and makes the figure of the female..the mediatress of another, more ‘celestial’ love.
1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet (2000) xiii. 380 Melancholy and chastity make sublimation possible, according to the fifteenth-century Florentine Marsilio Ficino, and it's sublimation that sets free the furor divinus.
c. An elated or ecstatic state of mind. Now rare.
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the mind > emotion > pleasure > joy, gladness, or delight > rapture or ecstasy > [noun]
ravishment1477
exaltationa1513
ecstasy1526
enragement1596
rapture1598
trance1598
transportation1617
raptery1640
enravishment1656
transport1658
rapturousnessa1687
sublimation1816
raptus1845
1816 T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall v. 65 That enthusiastic sublimation which is the source of greatness and energy.
1891 T. Hardy Tess of the D'Urbervilles III. xliii. 47 Tess's unassisted power of dreaming..being enough for her sublimation at present, she declined except the merest sip.
1996 A. Gibson Joyce's Ithaca Introd. 7 A third sense of ‘sublimation’, now largely lost, is relevant, too: sublimation as elation or ecstasy.
5. Psychoanalysis (originally in Freudian theory).
a. The action or process of diverting or modifying the energy derived from an instinctual impulse, esp. a sexual one, into a socially more acceptable interest or activity.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > libido > sublimation of libido > [noun] > result of
sublimation1910
1910 A. A. Brill tr. S. Freud Three Contrib. to Sexual Theory 58 It must be through these roads that the attraction of the sexual motive powers to other than sexual aims, the sublimation of sexuality, is accomplished.
1916 C. E. Long tr. C. G. Jung Coll. Papers Analyt. Psychol. 140 The capacity for sublimation in a four-year-old child is still too slightly developed to be capable of performing more than symptomatic services.
1957 G. Faber Jowett v. 84 [His] extraordinary energy..may, perhaps, have been derived..from a perpetual ‘sublimation’ of the energy which most men release in acts of sex.
1989 A. Storr Freud viii. 74 Freud believed that sublimation of unsatisfied libido was responsible for producing all art and literature.
2003 M. R. Banschick & J. S. Banschick in L. Shyles Deciphering Cyberspace iv. 189 True sublimation of aggression requires shifting one's anger or rage from primitive and violent acts to competitive and socially sanctioned ones.
b. The result of this; a sublimated instinct.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > libido > sublimation of libido > [noun]
sublimation1914
1914 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 22 422 He assumes that all evolutionary variations and sublimations of the primitive impulse to procreate, in the lower forms of life, can rightfully be designated sexual.
1926 Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-anal. 7 44 Thus Leonardo's genital activity..was wholly merged in his sublimations.
1977 C. E. Schutz Polit. Humor 8 Political humor..exemplifies humor as a sublimation of aggression.
2001 P. P. Read Alice in Exile (2002) iv. vii. 405 Vacillating between the belief that it [sc. love] was a sublimation of crude desire and the equally base..conclusion that it was an égoïsme à deux.
Compounds
General attributive (chiefly in senses 1 and 5).
ΚΠ
1776 R. E. Raspe tr. J. J. Ferber Trav. Italy i. 9 They consider here their common melting and ustulation of the mercurial-ores as an arcanum, and accordingly do not allow any stranger to examine their sublimation-house.
1805 W. Nisbet Gen. Dict. Chem. 212 Sublimation vessels.
1859 Geologist 2 364 The sublimation-, infiltration-, and alteration-products are added to the original injected vein.
1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 184 Sublimation-theory, the theory that a vein was filled first with metallic vapors.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxviii. 457 The vapour pressure of the solid falls to one atmosphere at −79°; this is therefore the ‘sublimation-point,’..at which the solid vaporises under atmospheric pressure.
1959 Phi Delta Kappan 40 292/2 The insightful work of Freud was the culmination of sublimation theories of catharsis.
1993 A. M. Clark Hey's Mineral Index (ed. 3) 438/1 Mascagnite, (NH4)2SO4... A sublimation product in the fumaroles of Vesuvius and Etna.
2004 New Yorker 16 Feb. 148/2 The music..is..a paradise for passive-aggressives, sublimation addicts, and other relics of the Freudian world.
2005 S. Lucas Bloodlines of Soul i. 8 The ultimate goal of this sublimation process is a state of ‘enlightenment’ that literally makes our energy body lighter.
Derivatives
ˌsubliˈmational adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > libido > sublimation of libido > [adjective]
sublimated1910
sublimatory1911
sublimational1918
1918 E. J. Kempf Autonomic Functions & Personality ii. 29 (caption) This diagram represents the continuity of the energic stream flowing through nutritional, sexual and sublimational functions of the personality.
1964 Managem. Internat. 4 111 These feelings are at the root of his confidence in his creative and sublimational impulses.
2004 V. Ostromouv in J. M. Kimble Cryosols iii. i. 350 Frozen soils dehydrate during sublimational drying.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.a1393