esemplastic

[ es-em-plas-tik, -uhm- ]

adjective

1. having the ability to shape diverse elements or concepts into a unified whole:

   the esemplastic power of a great mind to simplify the difficult.

esemplastic

/ ˌɛsɛmˈplæstɪk /

adjective

1. literature making into one; unifying

Word History and Origins

Origin of esemplastic¹

1810–20; < Greek es-, dialectal variant of eis- into + ( h ) én, neuter of heîs one + plastic; irregular coinage by S.T. Coleridge; compare German Ineinsbildung, term used by Schelling

Word History and Origins

Origin of esemplastic¹

C19 (first used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge): from Greek es, eis into + em, from hen, neuter of heis one + -plastic

Example Sentences

Esemplastic, es-em-plas′tik, adj. shaping into one.

From Project Gutenberg

Esmond is subjective also in the highest degree.2.This form, which he used elsewhere than in the Biographia Literaria, is better than esemplastic which he employed there.3.The justice or accuracy of his individual presentments and even of his general view of the time is quite another matter.

From Project Gutenberg

Coleridge's 'esemplastic,' by which he was fain to express the all-atoning or unifying power of the imagination, has not pleased others at all in the measure in which it pleased himself; while the words of Jeremy Taylor, of such Latinists as Sir Thomas Browne and Henry More, born only to die, are multitudinous as the fallen leaves of autumn.

From Project Gutenberg

It will be well, if already you have not too much of metaphysical disquisition in your work, though as the larger part of the disquisition is historical, it will doubtless be both interesting and instructive to many to whose unprepared minds your speculations on the esemplastic power would be utterly unintelligible.

From Project Gutenberg

On the imagination, or esemplastic power     O Adam, One Almighty is, from whom     All things proceed, and up to him return,     If not deprav'd from good, created all     Such to perfection, one first matter all,     Endued with various forms, various degrees     Of substance, and, in things that live, of life;     But more refin'd, more spiritous and pure,     As nearer to him plac'd, or nearer tending,     Each in their several active spheres assigu'd,     Till body up to spirit work, in bounds     Proportion'd to each kind.

From Project Gutenberg