sibylline

• sybilline

Latin sibyllinus,[1] Sibillinus,[2] from Sibylla.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪbɪlaɪn/ (UK)

sibylline (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to or resembling a sibyl or female oracle, especially the Cumaean Sibyl and the Sibylline Books. [from late 16th c.]

   Synonym: sibyllic

   • 1922, Baroness Orczy, “Mice and Men”, in The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel:

     But directly she had closed the door behind her, Mother Théot's manner underwent a chance. Here the broad light of day appeared to divest her of all her sybilline attributes. She became just an ugly old woman, wrinkled and hook-nosed, dressed in shabby draperies that were grey with age and dirt, and with claw-like hands that looked like the talons of a bird of prey.

   • 1998, Deborah J. Bennett, Randomness, Harvard University Press, page 42:

     Another early form of rhapsodomancy is represented by the sibylline books.

   1. (by extension) Having oracle-like predicting powers, clairvoyant.
   2. (by extension) Occult, mysterious.

      Synonym: enigmatic

2. Excessively and exorbitantly expensive. (In allusion to the Sibyl who sold three books to Tarquinius Superbus at the price of the original nine.)

sibylline (plural sibyllines)

1. One of the Sibylline Oracles or Sibylline Books.

• Sibylline Oracles

• sybilline

sibylline

1. feminine singular of sibyllin