palingenesis

[ pal-in-jen-uh-sis ]

noun

1. rebirth; regeneration.
2. Biology.
   1. embryonic development that reproduces the ancestral features of the species.
   2. Obsolete. the supposed generation of organisms from others preformed in the germ cells.
3. baptism in the Christian faith.
4. the doctrine of transmigration of souls.

palingenesis

/ ˌpælɪnˈdʒɛnɪsɪs; ˌpælɪndʒəˈnɛtɪk /

noun

1. Christianity spiritual rebirth through metempsychosis of Christian baptism
2. biology another name for recapitulation

Derived Forms

• ˌpalingeˈnetically, adverb
• palingenetic, adjective

Other Words From

• pal·in·ge·ne·si·an [pal-in-j, uh, -, nee, -zhee-, uh, n, -zh, uh, n], pal·in·ge·net·ic [pal-in-j, uh, -, net, -ik], adjective
• palin·ge·neti·cal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of palingenesis¹

1615–25; < New Latin < Greek pálin again + génesis genesis

Word History and Origins

Origin of palingenesis¹

C19: from Greek palin again + genesis birth, genesis

Example Sentences

She is preparing to visit Palingenesis, the cutting-edge lab founded by her megalomaniacal aunt, who has given Con the gift of her own clone.

From New York Times

In “Palingenesis,” a poem in “The Unknown University,” Bolaño chats with the poet Archibald MacLeish over tapas in Barcelona.

From The New Yorker

Palingenesis, pal-in-jen′e-sis, n. a new birth or a second creation: regeneration: the development of an individual germ in which it repeats that of its ancestors: the recurrence of historical events in the same order in an infinite series of cycles—also Pal′ingeny, Palingē′sia.—adj.

From Project Gutenberg

If I am not mistaken, he played a passage from the Palingenesis of Ballanche, whose ideas he was translating into music, which was very useful for those who cannot read the works of that famous writer in the original.

From Project Gutenberg

Sometimes they found it reconstructing the past, either by the power of retrospective vision, or by the mystery of a palingenesis not unlike the power a man might have of detecting in the form, integument, and embryo in a seed, the flowers of the past, and the numberless variations of their color, scent, and shape; and sometimes, again, it could be seen vaguely foreseeing the future, either by its apprehension of final causes, or by some phenomenon of physical presentiment.

From Project Gutenberg