sovran

comparative more sovran · superlative most sovran

1. archaicArchaic spelling of sovereign.

   My pity is a stream; my pride of thee Is like the sea that doth engulf the stream; My love for thee is like the sovran moon That rules the sea.

   1908, Henry Van Dyke, The House of Rimmon

   2 more examples

   The Highest comes in Holy Land to hold His sovran court and synod sanctified, As all the psalms and prophets have foretold: The riches of his grace He will spread wide Through his own realm, that seat and chosen fold Of worship and free mercies multiplied.

   1878, Michael Angelo Buonarroti, Tommaso Campanella, Sonnets

   Can animal industry, like our own, obey the law of economy, the sovran law that governs our industrial machine even as it governs, at least to all appearances, the sublime machine of the universe?

   1915, Alexander Teixeira De Mattos, F.Z.S., Bramble-bees and Others

plural sovrans

1. archaicArchaic spelling of sovereign (“ruler”).

   In the Protestant States, the supreme ecclesiastical power was vested in the sovran; the sovran had other interests besides those of the Church to consider; and political reasons would compel him sooner or later to modify the principle of ecclesiastical intolerance.

   1913, J. B. Bury, A History of Freedom of Thought