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sibylline

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L340423 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈsɪbɪlaɪn/

adj

Etymology: From Latin sibyllinus, Sibillinus, from Sibylla. By surface analysis, sibyl + -ine.

  1. Of or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books.

    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.

    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.

  2. Of or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books.
  3. Of or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books.
  4. Excessively and exorbitantly expensive. (In allusion to the Sibyl who sold three books to Tarquinius Superbus at the price of the original nine.)

noun

Etymology: From Latin sibyllinus, Sibillinus, from Sibylla. By surface analysis, sibyl + -ine.

  1. One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.