Definitions

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun unreasonable and inordinate self-esteem (personified as one of the deadly sins)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • It is thereby driven, ultimately, by spiritual pride what Augustine calls superbia and it is an essentially rational act - the training for the ascent is the intellectual training of dialectic.

    Love is the highest form of knowing Sam Norton 2006

  • Augustine or Aquinas at least had some attempts to nail down the philosphical problem: the problem with "superbia" (vanity) and "amor sui".

    Armed and Dangerous esr 2010

  • Adeo incomprehensibilis et aspera eorum superbia, &c. 6491.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Thou art humble as thou art, it may be; hadst thou been preferred, thou wouldst have forgotten God and thyself, insulted over others, contemned thy friends, [3973] been a block, a tyrant, or a demigod, sequiturque superbia formam: [3974] Therefore, saith

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • If she be fair, as the saying is, she is commonly a fool: if proud, scornful, sequiturque superbia formam, or dishonest, rara est concordia formae, atque pudicitiae, can she be fair and honest too?

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • Flamma simul libidinis ingreditur; ira, furor et superbia, divitiarum sequela.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • 'Tis proper to man alone, uni superbia, avaritia, superstitio, saith Plin. lib.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • [Chronicon Hierosolymitanum, eodem libro 9.cap. l2.] continueth this historie of these two hundreth saile of ships, and sheweth how by their prowesse chiefly, the multitude of the Sarazens were in short space vanquished and ouerthrowen: The words are these; Ab ipso ver� die terti� feri� dum sic in superbia et elatione su� multitudinis immobiles Saraceni persisterent, et multis armorum terroribus Christianum populum vexarent, sexta feria appropinquante.

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • Vnum est, quod quicunque in superbia erectus, propria authoritate sine electione principum esse voluerit imperator, sine vlla miseratione debet occidi.

    The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation 2003

  • Vanity, pride, pettiness and a desire to impose one's will on others are among the effects of original sin which Augustine discusses at some length and he says explicitly that Adam and Eve held God's original command in contempt because they were "puffed up with pride" ( "elatus superbia").

    Sex and Sin Weithman, Paul J. 1989

Comments

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  • For a reader without much lexycle experience, this word is a regular semecopia. Actually, it sounds like a (even more) pumped-up version of the good ol' BIA.

    May 15, 2009