Word of the Day
: August 25, 2009empyreal
playWhat It Means
1 : of or relating to the firmament : celestial
2 : sublime
empyreal in Context
Night after night, the comet shone brightly against the empyreal tapestry of the sky.
Did You Know?
"Empyreal" can be traced back to the Greek word for "fiery," "empyros," which was formed from the prefix "em-" ("in," "within," or "inside") and "-pyros," from "pyr," the Greek word for "fire." When "empyreal" entered the English language -- via the Late Latin "empyreus" or "empyrius"-- in the 15th century, it specifically referred to things related to the empyrean, the highest heaven or outermost heavenly sphere of ancient and medieval cosmology, which was often thought to contain or be composed of the element of fire. In the works of Christian writers -- such as Dante's Divine Comedy and John Milton's Paradise Lost -- this outermost heavenly sphere was associated with the Christian paradise. "Empyreal" is now also used more broadly in the senses of "celestial" and "sublime."
