Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA04050 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 28 Jan 2002 14:35:05 GMT Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 09:30:30 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Fwd: A.Word.A.Day--esemplastic ["enronomics"] From: Wade Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <94982C7C-13FB-11D6-8CCE-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Begin forwarded message:
> esemplastic (es-em-PLAS-tik) adjective
>
> Having the capability of moulding diverse ideas or things
> into unity.
>
> [From Greek es- (into) + en, neuter of eis (one) + plastic.
> Coined by poet
> Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), apparently after German
> Ineinsbildung
> (forming into one)].
>
> Here is how Coleridge used the term in his 1817 Biographia Literaria or
> Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions. Vol. I,
> Chapter 13:
>
> On the imagination, or esemplastic power.
> O Adam! one Almighty is, from whom
> All things proceed, and up to him return
> If not depraved from good: created all
> Such to perfection, one first nature all
> Indued with various forms, various degrees.
>
> "Admirers of (A.N.) Wilson, and I have been one of them, may console
> themselves by speculating that he just got impatient, or
> tired. Or that
> a minor demon, in a snit over his prolific output and
> ambitious subject
> matter, cast a temporary malediction on his esemplastic powers of
> fiction-making."
> Gail Godwin, Losing It All, The Washington Post, Jan 23, 1994.
>
> Like a house of cards, Enron corporation came down a few weeks ago. Its
> bankruptcy proceedings opened what may turn out to be a
> Pandora's box for
> more than just the corporation itself. Journalists are using
> the freshly
> minted term Enronomics to describe this corporation's brand of
> economics
> and accounting: off-the-record dealings, cooking books, and
> number sorcery
> that led to its rise and crash. Creative accounting has been
> going on for
> ages but it seems that Enron perfected it.
>
> Whether the term enronomics sticks, only time will tell. But
> this is a good
> example of how new words are coined. Some weather the test of
> time and get
> anointed into the venerated pages of dictionaries, while others
> fade like
> last year's fashion.
>
> This week's AWAD features five words, all coined by people,
> that have stuck
> around. Those who brought these expressions to life are a
> diverse lot. We'll
> see inventions of a poet, a cartoonist, a zoologist, and two
> journalists
> during the next five
> days. -Anu
>
>
> .........................................................................
> ...
> So many gods, so many creeds, So many paths that wind and wind,
> While just
> the art of being kind is all the sad world needs. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
> poet (1850-1919)
>
> This is a reader-supported publication. If you'd like to contribute,
> visit http://wordsmith.org/awad/friends.html . Send your comments to
> anu@wordsmith.org. To unsubscribe, subscribe, change address,
> or to send
> a gift subscription, visit http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html
>
> Pronunciation:
> http://wordsmith.org/words/esemplastic.wav
> http://wordsmith.org/words/esemplastic.ram
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 28 2002 - 14:43:26 GMT