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  1. sublunary love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Situated beneath the moon.
  2. adj. Of this world; earthly.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Situated beneath the moon.
  2. Hence Pertaining to this world; terrestrial; mundane; earthly; worldly: as, sublunary affairs.
  3. n. Any worldly thing.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Situated between the earth and the moon; sublunar or cislunar.
  2. adj. Of this world (as opposed to heaven etc.); earthly, terrestrial.
  3. n. obsolete Any worldly thing.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. obsolete Any worldly thing.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. situated between the earth and the moon
  2. adj. of this earth

Etymologies

  1. From sub- +‎ lunary. (Wiktionary)
  2. Late Latin sublūnāris : Latin sub-, sub- + Latin lūna, moon; see leuk- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “But the third verse whams in with "another country", namely heaven – thus not only annoying those of other religions and none, but implying that sublunary patriotism may be subject to overrule by the man upstairs.”

    The Guardian: So Lewis Hamilton wants a longer national anthem. Has he heard the second verse?

  • “ALLOWING for the imperfect state of sublunary happiness, which is comparative at best, there are not, perhaps, many nations existing whose situation is so desirable; where the means of subsistence are so easy, and the wants of the people so few … The evident distinction of ranks, which subsists at Otaheite, does not so materially affect the felicity of the nation as we might have supposed.”

    Letter 63

  • “I mean more specifically the Christian doctrine of the incarnation (Hoc est enim corpus meum), along with the Christian doctrine which holds that although sublunary things pass, like men passing over Crazy Jane's body, or like progress down a road, all those temporally moving things do not vanish.”

    Crossroads of Philosophy and Cultural Studies: Body, Context, Performativity, Community

  • “Yes, even the depths of the wintry cold, when the sun seems to mock us shivering mammals in this sublunary world, can make me smile, wonder, and fall in love again.”

    White-Throated Sparrows and the Return of Old Sam Peabody

  • “By us sublunary thy will be done ... with viands meet thy humble creatures bless.”

    Archive 2010-06-01

  • “The mahatma of the title, is helping Jack and Charley learn about their prospective brides (each is courting the other's sister) by offering to "tear your astral form from its sublunary habitation and send it gasping through the empyrean.”

    The woe of an aspiring genius.

  • “And us sublunary types can look up at her, and her dark quiet seas, and in moments pass again into our purer minds.”

    NASA Watch: Videos: July 2009 Archives

  • “This intelligence, Dietrich informs us, causes the substance of the sublunary beings that undergo generation and corruption, that is, bodies.”

    Dietrich of Freiberg

  • “In the sublunary world, elemental powers are simple and deterministic.”

    Medieval Theories of Causation

  • “For Aristotle, sublunary or terrestrial matter is of four kinds”

    Galileo Galilei

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‘sublunary’ has been looked up 1688 times, loved by 6 people, added to 35 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 14.