Pl. summa bona. [L. (Cicero), summum neut. sing. of summus highest, bonum neut. sing. of bonus good, used subst.] The chief or supreme good: properly a term of Ethics; often transf. and in trivial or jocular use.
1563. T. Gale, Inst. Chirurg., 11. As one myght thynke hymselfe ryght happye, though he neuer dyd attayne to Aristoteles summum bonum, or Plato his Idæa.
1591. Greene, Farew. Folly, Wks. (Grosart), IX. 289. The Cyriniake Philosophers … founded their summum bonum in pleasure.
1605. A. Warren, Poor Man’s Pass., etc., H 4 b. With Phago placing his felicity And summum Bonum in his gluttony.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 55. The Philosophers of old did in vain enquire, whether Summum bonum consisted in Riches, or bodily Delights, or Virtue, or Contemplation.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prud., iii. 114. Some last End or Summum Bonum as ’tis called, some good or other which he looks upon as desirable for itself.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 208. When a glutton sits down to a well-spread table with a good appetite, he possesses as much of the summum bonum as can be obtained within the time.
1811. Coleridge, Ess. Own Times (1850), III. 929. Hobbes, who … considered absolute tranquillity and implicit obedience as the summum bonum of a State.
1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus (ed. 4), 169.
| When … pap was the summum bonum of life, | |
| To a mouth in perpetual pucker. |
1862. Thackeray, Philip, vi. To be a painter,… I hold to be one of life’s summa bona.
1878. Encycl. Brit., VIII. 594/1. The summum bonum for man [according to Thomas Aquinas] is objectively God, subjectively the happiness to be derived from loving vision of His perfections.
So ǁ Summum pulchrum [L. pulchrum, neut. of pulcher beautiful, used subst.], the highest beauty.
1841. Clough, To καλόν v. The Summum Pulchrum rests in heaven above.
