august \aw-GUHST\, adjective:
1. venerable; eminent: an august personage.
2. inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic: an august performance of a religious drama.
Lafayette spoke, and bade farewell to Lamarque: it was a touching and august moment,--all heads were uncovered, and all hearts beat.
-- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (in translation), 1862
Now, deserted by his monarch, far from home, trapped in the Poder Tower laboratory as the chief alchemist involved in the longevity elixir, this august gentleman had to use all his ingenuity and cunning to simply save his own life.
-- Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor, 2003
August comes from the Latin augustus meaning "venerable, noble." It entered English in the 1660s.
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