different between seraphic vs unearthly

English

Alternative forms

• seraphical (archaic)
• seraphicall (obsolete)

Etymology

From Medieval Latin seraphicus, from Late Latin seraph?m, seraph?n, from Hebrew ??????? (saráf, “seraph”). Surface etymology seraph +? -ic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s???æf.?k/
• Rhymes: -æf?k
• 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

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

     Ye Ho?ts that to his Courts belong, / Cherubic Quires, Seraphic Flames, / Awake the everla?ting Song.

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

     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, London: B. White, Part 2, p. 407,^[2]

     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, London: Chapman & Hall, p. 27,^[3]

     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, The Once and Future King, London: Collins, 1959, Chapter 5,^[4]

     She had a seraphic smile on her face.

   • 2012, Paul Lester, “Schoolboy Q (No 1,193),” The Guardian, 25 January, 2012,^[5]

     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

Anagrams

• aspheric, charpies, parchesi, sphæric

English

Etymology

From un- +? earthly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?n????.li/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?n???.li/

Adjective

unearthly (comparative unearthlier, superlative unearthliest)

1. Not of the earth; non-terrestrial.
   • 2012, Charles Lockwood, Tragedy at Honda, page 65

     In the hard glare of the Searchlight, which had been manned by Seaman 2nd class Evans W. Watkins, the rock had the unearthly look of a miniature satellite in space.

2. Preternatural or supernatural.
3. Strange, enigmatic, or mysterious.
   • 1819 [publ. Sep 1858], James Morton, "The Poetical Remains of the late Dr. John Leyden, with Memoirs of his Life", The Calcutta Review, volume 31, page 25

     I then set out to survey the town in the self-same palankeen. The houses had all of them an unearthly appearance, by no means consonant to our ideas of Oriental splendor.

4. Ideal beyond the mundane.
   • 2000, Aileen Ribeiro, The Gallery of Fashion, page 42

     By the late sixteenth century Elizabeth had become the icon-like Virgin Queen of legend, an image created, to a large extent, by her extraordinary, unearthly costume and appearance.

5. Ridiculous, ludicrous, or outrageous.
   • 1927, The Walther League Messenger, volume 36, page 225

     I see my boys all wearing the same unearthly trousers, the same hair cuts, garish ties and sweaters, all rolling their socks and entertaining the same crazy notions about everything.

Translations