seraphic

• seraphical (archaic)
• seraphicall (obsolete)

From Medieval Latin seraphicus, from Late Latin seraphīm, seraphīn, from Hebrew שָׂרָף (saráf, “seraph”). By surface analysis, seraph +‎ -ic.

• IPA^(key): /səˈɹæf.ɪk/
• Rhymes: -æfɪk
• Hyphenation: se‧raf‧ic

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

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 536–539:

     Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld / Th’ imperial Enſign, which full high advanc’t / Shon like a Meteor ſtreaming to the Wind / With Gemms and Golden luſtre rich imblaz’d, / Seraphic arms and Trophies : all the while / Sonorous metal blowing Martial ſounds […]

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

     Ye Hoſts that to his Courts belong, / Cherubic Quires, Seraphic Flames, / Awake the everlaſting Song.

2. Pure and sublime; angelic.
   • 1684, Aphra Behn, Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister‎, London: Randal Taylor, pages 90–91:

     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:

     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, page 27:

     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, chapter 5, in The Once and Future King, London: Collins, published 1959:

     She had a seraphic smile on her face.

   • 2012 January 25, Paul Lester, “Schoolboy Q (No 1,193)”, in The Guardian‎:

     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.

• aspheric, charpies, parchesi, sphæric