sphingine

comparative more sphingine · superlative most sphingine

1. rareSphinx-like.

   The word I was looking for, I suppose, was "sphingine" – I thought of the baleful prehistoric smile of the Mycenaean women.

   1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 109

   1 more example

   For whenever she asked him how much he had written, he regularly answered 'Nothing,' smiling at her meanwhile that courteous and Sphingine smile which Mrs Aldwinkle always found so baffling, so pre-eminently 'queer'.

   1925, Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves

plural sphingines

1. countableuncountablechemistryThe amino alcohol 2-amino-octadecanol CH₃(CH₂)₁₅-CH(NH₂)-CH₂OH related to sphingosine; any related amino alcohol