celestial
UK /sɪˈlɛs.ti.əl/ · US /səˈlɛs.t͡ʃ(ə)l/ adjective, adverb, noun
Forms celestials cælestial cælestiall celestiall cœlestial
- adjective (not comparable) Of, relating to, or located in the sky or outer space, where the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars are visible.
- adjective (humorous) Of a nose: upturned, as if towards the sky.
- adjective (often humorous) Of or relating to China; Chinese.
- adjective (figurative, comparable) Extremely beautiful, good, or pleasurable; divine, heavenly, wonderful.
- adjective (religion, not comparable) Of or relating to heaven as the place where deities (or the Christian God), spiritual beings, etc., exist; heavenly.
- adjective Of or relating to one or more deities, or the Christian God; divine, heavenly.
- adjective (Mormonism) Of or relating to the celestial kingdom, the highest degree of glory.
- adverb Synonym of celestially (“in a celestial manner (adjective senses)”).
- noun An inhabitant of heaven.
- noun (chiefly in the plural) A thing from heaven; also, a heavenly quality.
- noun (figurative, dated) A person who is extremely beautiful, of high status, or intelligent, etc.
- noun (obsolete) Sometimes in the form Celestial: a native of China; a Chinese person.
- noun (historical) a person from the Celestial Empire (usually associated with the period of the Qing Dynasty)
- adjective (poetic) Coming from or having to do with Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Synonyms
celest awesome based beat beatific bewildering blissful delightful divine enchanting extraordinary fabulous fantabulosa fantabulous fascinating finger-lickin' good frabjous grandeur grandiose grand heavenly ethereal supernal
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Late Middle English celestial (“relating to the heavens or sky; (Christianity) relating to heaven, divine, heavenly”), borrowed from Old French celestial (modern French céleste), from Medieval Latin caelestiālis (“celestial”), or directly from its etymon Latin caelestis (“of or in the heavens, heavenly; (figurative) of the gods, divine; etc.”), from caelum (“heaven; sky”) (ultimate etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilom (“whole”)) + -estris (suffix meaning ‘dwelling or located in’ forming adjectives from nouns).
The adverb and noun are derived from the adjective.
Adjective sense 2.2 (“of or relating to China”) and noun sense 3 (“native of China”) refer to Celestial Empire (a calque of Mandarin 天朝 (Tiāncháo, “(literary) the Chinese Empire, China”), from 天 (tiān, “heaven; sky”) + 朝 (cháo, “dynasty; emperor’s reign; imperial court; etc.”)), a dated name for China when it was subject to imperial rule.
From the Celestial Empire, a colloquialism for the Chinese Empire / Empire of China / Imperial China.
After the name Celestial City.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Belonging to the aërial regions, or visible heavens. "The twelve celestial signs." Shak.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the spiritual heaven; heavenly; divine.
- noun An inhabitant of heaven. Pope.
- noun A native of China.
Etymology [OF. celestial, celestied, fr. L. caelestic, fr. caelum heaved. See Cell.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “celestial”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details