A.Word.A.Day --esemplastic

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Today's Word

esemplastic

PRONUNCIATION:

(es-em-PLAS-tik)

MEANING:

adjective: Having the capability of molding diverse ideas or things into unity.

ETYMOLOGY:

Coined by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), apparently inspired by German Ineinsbildung (forming into one). From Greek es- (into) + en, neuter of eis (one) + plastic, from Latin plasticus (related to molding), from Greek plastikos, from plassein (to mold). Earliest documented use: 1817.

USAGE:

“I once told Giselle she was the essence of the esemplastic act, for as she was giving me the curl of her tongue at that moment, she would pause to speak love words to me in three languages.”
William Kennedy; Very Old Bones; Viking; 1992.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

If he does not fight, it is not because he rejects all fighting as futile, but because he has finished his fights. He has overcome all dissensions between himself and the world and is now at rest... We shall have wars and soldiers so long as the brute in us is untamed. -Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, philosopher and second president of India (5 Sep 1888-1975)

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