| august | Of a quality inspiring mingled admiration and reverence; having an aspect of solemn dignity or grandeur; sublime; majestic; having exalted birth, character, state, or authority. "Forms august." . "August in visage." . "To shed that august blood." . "So beautiful and so august a spectacle." (Burke) "To mingle with a body so august." (Byron) Synonym: Grand, magnificent, majestic, solemn, awful, noble, stately, dignified, imposing. Origin: L. Augustus; cf. Augere to increase; in the language of religion, to honor by offerings: cf. F. Auguste. See Augment. The eighth month of the year, containing thirty-one days. The old Roman name was Sextilis, the sixth month from March, the month in which the primitive Romans, as well as Jews, began the year. The name was changed to August in honor of Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, on account of his victories, and his entering on his first consulate in that month. Origin: L. Augustus. See note below, and August. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
|---|---|
| augustan | 1. Of or pertaining to Augustus Caesar or to his times. 2. Of or pertaining to the town of Augsburg. Augustan age of any national literature, the period of its highest state of purity and refinement; so called because the reign of Augustus Caesar was the golden age of Roman literature. Thus the reign of Louis XIV. (b. 1638) has been called the Augustan age of French literature, and that of Queen Anne (b. 1664) the Augustan age of English literature. Augustan confession, or confession of Augsburg, drawn up at Augusta Vindelicorum, or Augsburg, by Luther and Melanchthon, in 1530, contains the principles of the Protestants, and their reasons for separating from the Roman Catholic church. Origin: L. Augustanus, fr. Augustus. See August. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| augustinian | A member of one of the religious orders called after St. Augustine; an Austin friar. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |