Anybody know the origin of the term "sea change," and also why it's gotten so popular lately? (Are we seeing a sea change in the use of words meaning "revolution"?)

Hiya

Yes, it comes from billyboy's The Tempest:

"Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange."

The general connotation is a radical alteration of state, although Shakespeare was of course using it in a punning sense.

It does seem to be popping up quite a lot recently, doesn't it? I guess these phrases get bandied about on the media until they become so hackneyed as to be counterproductive.

Mr Brians' excellent site about sums it up:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/sea.html

The misuse of it has been going on for a long time. Fowler complains of it as a hackneyed phrase, though I can't remember whether it's in The King's English (1904) or Modern English Usage (c. 1926).

As far as I'm concerned it's a misquotation pure and simple: those two words do occur together in Shakespeare but not at all in the sense now intended. Ariel's sea change was a slow transformation by the corrosion of time - not an abrupt reversal as if in... mid-stream?

What do people think they're saying? Even if they think it just means "change", why say "sea change" instead of "change"? "There has been a (sea) change in this government's policies"... what does it add?

I agree, Nicholas. I suspect many people use it thinking they are referring to 'a change in the state of the sea', implying strong forces at work. The pleasure in the original rests in the imaginative beauty that Ariel is conjuring up to delude the poor fool, and in Shakespeare's punning on the change in eyes/sea (see) and also that this sea-change occurs out of sight.

The abuse of "sea change" is just part of the widespread excessive fondness for clichés.

I always thought it meant a major, but slow, change. (This probably has something to do with my work in physical oceanography...)

I see there is no love lost between many AWADdies and the users of this phrase.

I fear I have been using it to mean a fundamental change in the state of things. I had heard of its origins in Ariel's transmogrification, but had conjured up my own folk etymology to fit with my use of it.

I've always thought of it as a change of seas. That is, the difference in sailing, say, the Caribbean versus the North Atlantic - different worlds, different conditions, different responses required. It somehow became linked in my mind to an image from soccer, when one calls out "switch fields" in calling for a pass from the other side of the field - which requires the defense to shift position to meet a threat coming now from a different direction.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Except, of course, to now use the phrase sparingly, and correctly.

Bean says : always thought it meant a major, but slow, change. (This probably has something to do with my work in physical oceanography...)

Got a surprise with this one! I've heard and used the phrase since I was a lil' one ... used around the New England seacoast meaning the weather has changed and a cool wind is coming off the sea ... specifically it's a Summertime word used when the weather has been hazy, hot, humid (3H weather) then there is a sea change and the wind comes across the cold ocean waters to cool us all off. A sea change is a welcome relief ... could use one today!

The abuse of "sea change" is just part of the widespread excessive fondness for clichés.

I think I'll start calling you the Cliché Policeman, Uncle Bill.

Dear Rapunzel: I use them too often without noticing it in time to be qualified to police them. But one of the reasons slang keeps changing is that people get tired of old phrases. I despise just as many of the new ones as of the old ones. One of the things about clichés that is particularly annoying is to see them used by someone who obviously got the meaning wrong. Which reminds me of something that might amuse you. My wife's favorite grandfather had been a travelling salesman for wire fencing, in the old days when so many of them travelled by train and swapped stories, jokes, and salty expressions. He was definitely henpecked, and his revenge was to teach his wife and daughter some of the salty expressions by using them, but not making clear the naughty side of them. He would get a chuckle out of hearing them repeat them to their extra proper friends, who would also copy them.
I had to explain a couple of them to my wife, to prevent her from having some of her friends think she was too free with unsuitable expression. One of our proper ladies on the board used one of them, and was horrified when I sent her a private message telling her what it really meant. We have to be careful what we copy.
Good to see your posts, better to see more of them Love, Uncle (reprobate) Bill

All this sea change talk is making me queasy(just kidding). Another way to look at it might be insomuch as the sea or ocean is constantly coming and going, tide in tide out, always changing, always constant "nothing new under the sun". A sea change. It may be different at this minute, but it will be the same again. Kind of fits the political sea, eh?

consuelo

I think there's a distinction to be made between misuse (or overuse = cliché) of an expression and the evolving language; to wit sea-change, a change wrought by the sea; now freq. transf. with or without allusion to Shakespeare's use (quot. 1610), an alteration or metamorphosis, a radical change so there has been a "legitimate transferral" which has been, in turn, overwrought.

1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 400 Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a *Sea-change Into something rich, & strange. 1917 E. Pound Lustra 193 Full many a fathomed sea~change in the eyes That sought with him the salt sea victories. 1923 J. M. Murry Pencillings 164 The characters which have suffered this sea-change, ‘of whose bones are coral made’, are the only unpleasant characters we remember. 1948 A. C. Baugh Lit. Hist. England II. ix. 173 An interesting paper suggesting that romance is transplanted epic, which has undergone a kind of sea-change in the passage. 1974 R. Helms Tolkien's World ii. 32 Even before The Hobbit was published he was at work on its sequel, a work in which Middle-earth has undergone a wondrous sea change. 1976 Listener 8 Apr. 450/3 The Messianic vision+has undergone some strange sea~changes outside Judaism. 1977 ‘E. Crispin’ Glimpses of Moon vii. 117 He+could, moreover+bring about a sea~change in the image of even the most bumbling police officers going about their duties, so that they emerged as prodigies of intelligence, zeal and kindness.

See change in language? Makes sense. But I think you are right, tsuwm, despite the useful distinction you have made, the phrase is probably due for a quiet retirement anywayz™

oh, I know -- that's why I put it in "quotes", max.

Here in the Land of Oz, the term 'sea change' has acquired enhanced currency in the last few years thanks to the eponymous soapie screened on the ABC (that's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in this antipodean context). As with Ariel's chanty, there was a bit of a jeu de mot in the title, the set-up being a magistrate and her family who move from the big smoke to a small (seaside) town peopled with small seaside eccentrics - never to be the same again. Sort of The Ghost and Mrs Muir meets Ali McBeal. Without the ghost (or the skeleton).

used around the New England seacoast meaning the weather has changed and a cool wind is coming off the sea

I thought of that one, too (it happens in St. John's at least three times a day! ), except the odd thing is that's not really a sea change, but a change of wind direction. wow's example is also called a sea breeze or onshore wind.

One of our proper ladies on the board...

Why thank you, Dr. Bill. [demure wave of fan] Now don't you say anything more about my eyes or you'll make me ...

I've heard and used the phrase since I was a lil' one ... used around the New England seacoast meaning the weather has changed and a cool wind is coming off the sea ... specifically it's a Summertime word used when the weather has been hazy, hot, humid (3H weather) then there is a sea change and the wind comes across the cold ocean waters to cool us all off.

When I read this response, I also thought that maybe the use of the term has legitimately evolved. After all, it's being used by people actually near the ocean, with a vested interest, and a familiarity in the surrounding environment.

So, it seems to me that it could have once been a fresh metaphor, but now is in the doldrums.

Bean > the odd thing is that's not really a sea change, but a change of wind direction. wow's example is also called a sea breeze or onshore wind.

Oh, yes, Bean! Here in NE, though, we distinguish ... the sea change being the actual turn of the breeze relieving the 3H conditions and a sea breeze is a type of weather, continuous mostly, as is an on shore wind.
Surfers are not fond of the onshore breeze .. they turn the waves to mushy froth.

Max: Aah, but tsuwm, many of the nice people here are none too keen on the idea of a transferral of meaning.

To a-me-you'll-be-right; 'transferral of meaning' would only pejorate the language. One would be silly to disagree...