supernal

comparative more supernal · superlative most supernal

1. Pertaining to heaven or to the sky; celestial.

   The sweet, gentle, pious, Ocean-nymphs, who in the Prometheus of Æschylus appear as the consolers and advisers of its dignified hero, seem to hold a nearly similar relation with man to the supernal gods.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 227

   1 more example

   […]and there, after due prayers to the gods who dwell in ether supernal, had taken solemn counsel whereby they might, if so be it might be, bring once more into honour among mortal men the winged speech of the seadivided Gael.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: celestial, heavenly

2. Exalted, exquisite, superlative.

   Even the sunlight assumed a supernal glamour, as if some special atmosphere or exhalation mantled the whole region.

   1931, H. P. Lovecraft, “chapter 6”, in The Whisperer in Darkness

   2 more examples

   Pig, not normally reticent in these matters, now acted like a mystic after a vision; unable, maybe unwilling, to put in words this ineffable or supernal talent of Panky’s.

   1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.

   For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel, Or Fourier, or any Boole or Euler, Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers, Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell?

   1974, Michael Kandel, “The Cyberiad”, in The Cyberiad, translation of original by Stanisław Lem

   Synonyms: exalted, exquisite