empyrée

French

Alternative forms

• Empyrée

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek εμπύριος (empúrios, “that which is inflamed”), from Ancient Greek πῦρ (pûr, “fire”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɑ̃.pi.ʁe/

• Homophones: empirer, empiré, empirée

Noun

empyrée m (uncountable)

1. (literary) the empyrean, highest part of the sky, that the ancients considered as the stay of the deities.
   • 1877, Victor Hugo, L'Art d'être grand-père:

     Enfants, dans vos yeux éclatants
     Je crois voir l’empyrée éclore :
     Vous riez comme le printemps
     Et vous pleurez comme l’aurore.

     Children, in your bright eyes
     I think I see the empyrean bloom:
     You laugh like the spring
     And you cry like the dawn.

Usage notes

This word is said to exist in the singular only.

Further reading

• “empyrée”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.