ajnabee:

“The concept of creation has been much more linked to art than to science or to philosophy. What does a painter create? He creates lines and colors. That suggests that lines and colors are not givens, but are the product of a creation. What is given, quite possibly, one could always call a flow. It’s flows that are given, and creation consists in dividing, organizing, connecting flows in such a way that a creation is drawn or made around certain singularities extracted from flows.”

—

Gilles Deleuze, Cours Vincennes – 15/04/1980

Forms:  lME methamorphosyos, 15 metamorphosys, 15– metamorphosis.

Etymology:  < classical Latin metamorphōsis (only with reference to the work by Ovid; in post-classical Latin in sense 1a (5th cent.)) < Hellenistic Greek μεταμόρϕωσις < μετα-meta- prefix + μόρϕωσιςmorphosis n., after μεταμορϕοῦν to transform. Compare Middle French, French métamorphose (c1365 as a translation of the title of the work by Ovid; 1493 in Middle French in sense 1a; 1668 in sense 2; 1736 in sense 3a). Compare also Italian metamorfosi (1499), Spanish metamorfosis (c1620).

The first Latin use is in the plural form Metamorphōsēs as the title of a poem by Ovid in the classical tradition of tales about transformations of gods or humans into the shapes of animals, plants, or inanimate objects. Subsequent uses in Latin, as well as the earliest uses in English, allude to or are strongly influenced by Ovid’s poem. English forms of the title of the poem are numerous until the 16th cent., from which time only the standard singular and plural forms are used:

c1390    Chaucer Man of Law’s Tale B.93   Me were looth be likned‥To Muses that men clepe Pierides; Methamorphosios [v.rr. Methamorphoseos, Metham orphaseos, Methanorphoseos, Methemore phees, Meche more phees] woot what I mene.

a1393    Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. 389   In Metamor it telleth thus.

a1393    Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 6711   Ovide‥in his Methamor‥tolde A tale.

c1425    Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A. 4) v. 1973   Þus seith Ovide‥In his boke of transformacioun Methamorphoseos.

1531    T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour i. x. sig. Eij,   I wolde set nexte vnto hym two bokes of Ouid, the one called Metamorphosios, whiche is as moche to saye, as chaungynge of men in to other figure or fourme. 

Greek μεταμορϕοῦν has a wider application, and appears in the gospels with the sense ‘transfigure’ transfigure v. 1b; some examples of the use of metamorphosis and related words in post-classical Latin reflect this gospel use (compare metamorphist n. 1). 

N.E.D. (1906    ) gives only the pronunciation (metămǭ·ɹfŏsis) /mɛtəˈmɔːfəsɪs/ . The alternative pronunciation with stress on the fourth syllable is apparently first mentioned as occurring in British usage by H. W. Fowler Mod. Eng. Usage (1926), who describes it as ‘more regular’ and as ‘still often heard’ (this impression of its former currency appears to be mistaken); it is recorded in the Shorter Oxf. Eng. Dict. (1933), and is also given in later editions of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. The same stress is given, without an alternative, in W. A. N. Dorland Amer. Illustr. Med. Dict. (1900), but the absence of such a pronunciation from other medical dictionaries (American and otherwise) of similar date makes it doubtful that a stressed fourth syllable was a distinctive feature of medical usage.

 1.

 a. The action or process of changing in form, shape, or substance; esp. transformation by supernatural means.

1447    O. Bokenham Lives of Saints 5034   Mynerue hyr-self‥ne coude prouyde More goodly aray, þow she dede en[cl]os Wyth-ynne oo web al methamorphosyos.

1533    T. More Debellacyon Salem & Bizance f. 1v,   Salem & Bizans somtime two great townes‥were‥with a meruelouse metamorphosys, enchaunted and turned into twoo englyshe men.

1598    J. Marston (title)    The metamorphosis of Pigmalions image.

1619    E. M. Bolton tr. Florus Rom. Hist. 115   As if by a kind of metamorphosis, the gods had‥changed trees to vessels.

1674    Govt. Tongue xii. 204   One would think we were fallen into an Age of Metamorphosis, and that the Brutes did (not only Poetically and in fiction) but really speak. For the talk of many is so bestial, that [etc.].

1712    Spectator 28 June 602/2   What more strange, than the Creation of the World, the several Metamorphoses of the fallen Angels.

1794    R. J. Sulivan View of Nature IV. 179   From the metempsychosis, however, arose the doctrine of the metamorphosis.

1856    J. Ruskin Mod. Painters III. 290   A fourth‥will begin to change them in his fancy into dragons and monsters, and lose his grasp of the scene in fantastic metamorphosis.

1869    H. F. Tozer Res. Highlands of Turkey II. 264   The points‥on which the stories turn are transformations and metamorphoses of various kinds.

1899    R. C. Temple in Folk-lore Dec. 411   The sole difference between the folk notions of metamorphosis and metempsychosis lies in the fact of the former consisting in change of form during life, and in the latter after death.

1939    H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn 80,   I wanted a metamorphosis, a change to fish, to leviathan, to destroyer.

1978    A. S. Byatt Virgin in Garden i. xiii. 137   She located a man becoming a stag, a creature whose tortured energy of metamorphosis was something like that of the foliate men in Southwell Minster.

1983    P. de Man Rhetoric of Romanticism (1984) 240   Anthropomorphisms can contain a metaphorical as well as a metonymic moment—as in an Ovidian metamorphosis in which one can start out from the contiguity of the flower’s name to that of the mythological figure in the story.

†b. A metamorphosed form or state. Obs.

1574    B. Rich Riight Excelent Dialogue Mercury & Eng. Souldier sig. Miiiv,   Those that are in deed Metamorphosis hauing but the shapes of men.

1589    R. Greene Menaphon sig. H4v,   Samela‥stoode amazed like Medusaes Metamorphosis.

1651    T. Randolph et al. Hey for Honesty ii. i. 11/2   But come you Pig-hogs, let us leave jesting. I restore you to your old metamorphosis, as you may see in the first leaf of Virgil’s Bucolicks.

1719    J. Barker Exilius II. iii. 236,   I am sure I shall be as great a Metamorphosis in Manners, as thou art in Person.

1789    Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 79 69,   I find the whole island formed of an argillaceous earth, either in its primitive state, or under its different metamorphoses.

1859    ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. vi. 138   An amount of fat on the nape of her neck, which made her look like the metamorphosis of a white sucking pig. 

 2. A complete change in the appearance, circumstances, condition, or character of a person, a state of affairs, etc.

1548    Hall’s Vnion: Henry VI f. clxj,   Ihon Cade‥departed secretly in habite disguysed, into Sussex: but all his metamorphosis or transfiguracion, litle preuailed.

1598    R. Barckley Disc. Felicitie of Man iii. 187   The Hermite‥asked him how it chaunced, that he was fallen into such a metamorphosis?

1656    Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso i. xxix. 49   The Metamorphosis is too great, when from being a privat man, one becomes a Prince.

1691    A. Wood Athenæ Oxon. I. 825   News was brought him of a metamorphosis in the State at home.

1725    E. Haywood Fantomina 268   Notwithstanding this Metamorphosis she was still extremely pretty.

1791    J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1753 I. 137   Whatever agreement a Chief might make with any of the clan, the Herald’s Office could not admit of the metamorphosis.

1820    W. Scoresby Acct. Arctic Regions I. 386   The mountains along the whole coast, assumed the most fantastic forms.‥ These varied and sometimes beautiful metamorphoses‥suggested the reality of fairy descriptions.

1853    C. Brontë Villette II. xxviii. 317   It [sc. his visage] changed as from a mask to a face.‥ I know not that I have ever seen in any other human face an equal metamorphosis.

1857    H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilisation Eng. viii. 519   By a singular metamorphosis, the secular principle was now represented by the Catholics, and the theological principle by the Protestants.

1867    L. M. Child Romance of Repub. v. 64   The disguises were quickly assumed, and the metamorphosis made Rosa both blush and smile.

1911    M. Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson v. 71   Do not fear that I, if you were to wed me, should demand a metamorphosis of your present self. I should take you as you are, gladly.

1993    Times 9 Feb. 27/6   The change from saying nothing to being quasi-judges can hardly be described as a comfortable metamorphosis.

 3. 

 a. Biol. Change of form in an animal (†or plant), or its parts, during post-embryonic development; spec. the process of transformation from an immature form to a different adult form that many insects and other invertebrates, and some vertebrates (e.g. frogs), undergo in the course of maturing. Also: an instance of this.

1665    Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 88   Their [sc. silkworms’] metamorphoses are four.

1722    J. Quincy Lex. Physico-medicum (ed. 2) ,   Metamorphosis, is applied by Harvey to the Changes an Animal undergoes both in its Formation and Growth; and by several to the various Shapes some Insects in particular pass through, as the Silk Worm and the like.

1797    Encycl. Brit. XIV. 712/1   A new form or change of appearance is always implied in metamorphosis or transformation‥; as when the lobes of a seed are converted into seminal leaves.

1828    J. Stark Elements Nat. Hist. II. 232   The transformations or metamorphoses of insects embrace three states.

1881    F. M. Balfour Treat. Compar. Embryol. II. 113   The change undergone by the Tadpole in its passage into the Frog is so considerable as to deserve the name of a metamorphosis.

1888    G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 161   A perfect metamorphosis, such as that of Sphinx, with three well-marked stages, larva, pupa, and imago.

1934    J. A. Thomson & E. J. Holmyard Biol. for Everyman I. iii. 38   Phagocytes‥may act as sappers and miners when the body is undergoing some great change (metamorphosis), as when a maggot becomes a fly.

1955    Sci. News Let. 14 May 313/2   The fishfly, which begins its slow, nocturnal flights about this time of the year, is among the earliest insects with complete metamorphosis, fossil records show.

1998    L. Margulis & K. V. Schwartz Five Kingdoms (ed. 3) iii. 291/2   In gastropods, bivalves, and scaphopods, the trochophore larvae develop into veliger larvae‥before metamorphosis to the adult form.

 b. Biol. (chiefly Bot.). Evolutionary change in the form of an organ. Also (Bot.): change of one type of organ into another as an abnormal process, as in staminody or petalody. Also: an instance of such change. Now rare.

The use of this sense in botany was influenced by Goethe’s Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen (1790).

1835    W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals II. xvii. 137   If we go from the Cetaceans to the Amphibians, we see a further metamorphosis of the organs of motion.

1839    Penny Cycl. XV. 131/2   Metamorphosis of organs, in the Vegetable Kingdom, consists in an adaptation of one and the same organ to several different purposes.

1847–9    Todd’s Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. IV. 623/2   A unity which has undergone such an infinitely graduated metamorphosis of its parts as to yield these unequal skeletal forms.

1849    J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. §641. 307   The different parts of the flower may be changed into each other, or into true leaves.‥ These changes may take place from without inwards, by an ascending or direct metamorphosis, as in the case of petals becoming stamens; or from within outwards, by descending or retrograde metamorphosis, as when stamens become petals.

1876    E. R. Lankester tr. Haeckel Hist. Creation I. iv. 90   His [sc. Goethe’s] idea of metamorphosis is almost synonymous with the theory of development.

1903    W. H. Lang Strasburger’s Text-bk. Bot. (ed. 2) i. 10   The various modifications which the primitive form has passed through constitute its metamorphosis.

c. Histol. and Pathol. Change of form in a cell or tissue; growth or repair of tissue. Now rare exc. in   fatty metamorphosis n. accumulation of lipid in the cytoplasm of cells, esp. of the liver.

1839–47    Todd’s Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. III. 750/1   The production of the simple structureless membranes‥must be attributed, we think, to the consolidation of a thin layer of blastema, rather than to any metamorphosis of cells.

1845–6    G. E. Day tr. J. F. Simon Animal Chem. I. 133   The metamorphosis [of blood-corpuscles] occurs in the peripheral system.

1857    E. L. Birkett Bird’s Urin. Deposits (ed. 5) 440   Every animal developes,‥during the process of metamorphosis of tissue, a series of nitrogenized substances.

1864    E. A. Parkes Man. Pract. Hygiene i. vi. 156   There is a much more rapid metamorphosis of tissue in carnivorous animals.

1886    Buck’s Handbk. Med. Sci. III. 47/2   Fatty metamorphosis (both degeneration and infiltration) may generally be detected with the unaided eye.

1899    T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 158   Contact with the abnormal surface sets up an immediate viscous metamorphosis of the platelets.

1928    E. V. Cowdry Special Cytol. I. ii. 36   In the sebaceous glands the secretory products are elaborated by the fatty metamorphosis, destruction and discharge of the cells themselves.

1968    Cancer 21 699   Fatty metamorphosis of the liver in malignant neoplasia.

1999    Amer. Jrnl. Gastroenterol. 94 3010   The most likely histological diagnosis is fatty metamorphosis of the liver with occasional associated fibrosis.

†d. Chem. and Biochem. A chemical reaction, esp. one involving catalytic or enzymatic action; a metabolic change; metabolism (esp. catabolism). Obs.

1843    R. J. Graves Syst. Clin. Med. Introd. Lect. 34   Professor Liebig applied the name of metamorphosis to those chemical actions in which a given compound by the presence of a peculiar substance, is made to resolve itself into two or more compounds.

1853    W. B. Carpenter Princ. Human Physiol. (ed. 4) 47   When there is a deficiency of fatty matters in the food, these may be formed by a metamorphosis of its saccharine constituents.

1853    W. B. Carpenter Princ. Human Physiol. (ed. 4) 52   The chemical metamorphoses which take place in the economy.

1862    W. A. Miller Elements Chem.: Org. (ed. 2) III. 58, 61   Production of Chemical Metamorphoses.‥1. Oxidation.‥2. Metamorphoses by Reduction.‥3. Metamorphoses by Substitution.

1867    Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 157 182   Different experimenters have examined the products of its [sc. gun-cotton’s] metamorphosis at different stages.

1875    A. W. Bennett & W. T. T. Dyer tr. J. Sachs Text-bk. Bot. iii. ii. 631   Transitory metamorphoses appear to take place also when the albuminoids stored up in the reservoirs of reserve-materials are being transported and consumed.

Plotinus showed, too, an unconquerable reluctance to sit to a painter or a sculptor, and when Amelius persisted in urging him to allow of a portrait being made he asked him, ‘Is it not enough to carry about this image in which nature has enclosed us? Do you really think I must also consent to leave, as a desired spectacle to posterity, an image of the image?’

Plotinus was often distressed by an intestinal complaint, but declined clysters, pronouncing the use of such remedies unbecoming in an elderly man: in the same way he refused such medicaments as contain any substance taken from wild beasts or reptiles: all the more, he remarked, since he could not approve of eating the flesh of animals reared for the table.

Plotinus said: ‘I have been a long time waiting for you. Strive to give back the Divine in yourself to the Divine in the All.’ As he spoke a snake crept under the bed on which he lay and slipped away into a hole in the wall: at the same moment Plotinus died.

Porphyry, “On the Life of Plotinus and the Arrangement of his Work”

It so annoys me to read the blogger’s cliché that Montaigne was the original blogger. Montaigne was Montaigne, and that’s the reason to read him. If anyone, it would be Aulus Gellius. But since neither Montaigne nor Aulus Gellius would make the same mistake, in fact, the comparison fails for both.

Incorruptible bodies, so lack of oxidation. These are breathing helmets, not halos. The Holy Spirit is nitrogen.

Forms:  α. ME– discover; also ME deschuver, discoovir, ME dys-, ME–16 discouer, ME -cuuer, -couyr, -couuer. β. ME diskyuer, ME diskeuer, dyskeuer. γ. ME descure, ME–15 discour(e, -cure, ME -cuyre, ME–15 -kure, 15 -cuir. δ. ME–15 dis-, dyskere.

Etymology:  < Old French descovrir, descouvrir = Provençal descobrir, Spanish descubrir, Italian discovrire (later -coprire), < medieval Latin discooperīre, late Latin or Romanic < dis- prefix 1d + Latin cooperīre to cover v.1 The Old French stressed form descuevre, -queuvre, gave the English variant, diskever (still dial.), and the vocalizing of v between vowels, gave the reduced discour, -cure, and diskere. 

†1. trans. To remove the covering (clothing, roof, lid, etc.) from (anything); to bare, uncover; esp. to uncover (the head), to unroof (a building). Obs.

1382    Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Lev. xxi. 10   His heed he shal not discouer, his clothis he shal not kitt.

14..    Lydgate Temple Glas 916   Who þat wil‥Fulli be cured‥He most‥Discure his wound, & shew it to his lech.

c1449    R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 206   The principal crucifix of the chirche schal be discovered and schewid baar and nakid to al the peple of the processioun.

1483    Caxton tr. J. de Voragine Golden Legende 362/2   She‥said to her sustres that they sholde discouere their hedes.

1520    R. Whittinton Uulgaria (1527) 40   Let hym also‥set his cuppe surely before his superyour, discouer it and couer it agayne with curtesy made.

1571    E. Grindal Articles 50   Whether any man hath pulled downe or discouered any Church, chauncell, or chappell.

1627    Lisander & Cal. v. 80   At the end of his sermon having discovered his head.

1628    E. Coke 1st Pt. Inst. Lawes Eng. i. 53   If the house be discouered by tempest, the tenant must in conuenient time repaire it. 

†2. To remove, withdraw (anything serving as a cover); to cause to cease to be a covering. Obs.

1535    W. Stewart tr. H. Boethius Bk. Cron. Scotl. II. 139   At the last the cloud ane lytill we Discouerit wes, that tha micht better se.

1611    Bible (A.V.) Jer. xiii. 22   For the greatnesse of thine iniquitie are thy skirts discouered.

1618    G. Chapman tr. Hesiod Georgicks i. 161   When the woman the unwieldy lid Had once discover’d, all the miseries hid‥dispersed and flew About the world.

 3. a. To disclose or expose to view (anything covered up, hidden, or previously unseen), to reveal, show. Now rare.

a1450  (1410)    H. Lovelich Hist. Holy Grail lv. l. 175   Thanne browhte Aleyn this holy vessel Anon‥& there it discouerede & schewed it þe kyng.

1535    Bible (Coverdale) Isa. xxvi. C,   He wil discouer the bloude that she hath deuoured.

1613    Voy. Guiana in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 182   A goodly river, discovering a gallant Country.

1661    E. Hickeringill Jamaica 39   Columbus, to whose happy search, the West-Indies first discovered it self.

1689    E. Hickeringill Speech Without-doors v. 35   Which Wrinckles I had rather Masque over and cover, than discover.

1716    Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 14 Sept. (1965) I. 263   The Stage was built over a‥Canal, and at the beginning of the 2nd Act divided into 2 parts, discovering the Water.

1797    A. Radcliffe Italian III. xi. 385   This discovered to Schedoni the various figures assembled in his dusky chamber.

a1861    A. H. Clough Poems & Prose Rem. (1869) II. 468   She‥Swift her divine shoulders discovering.

1882    R. L. Stevenson New Arabian Nights I. 183   The nurseryman‥readily discovered his hoard.

fig.

1892    N. Smyth Christian Ethics i. iii. 188   This mode of thinking discovers a cosmical moral significance in the incarnation.

†b. To afford a view of, to show. Obs.

1600    E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 212   Upon the hils, which discover the enimies lodging and their trenches.

1638    T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 73   ‘Tis wall’d about, and to the N.N.W. discovers a lake or fish-pond five miles over.

1667    Milton Paradise Lost i. 64   From those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv’d only to discover sights of woe.

c1710    C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 112   An advanced piece of ground above all the rest‥discovers the Country a great Circuit round.

 c. to discover check (Chess): to remove a piece or pawn which stands between a checking piece and the king, and so to put the latter in check.

[1614    A. Saul Famous Game Chesse-play viii. sig. C3,   A Mate by discouery, the most worthiest of all.]

1816    Stratagems of Chess (1817) 11   Place the queen, bishop or castle behind a pawn or a piece in such a manner as upon playing that pawn or piece you discover a check upon your adversary’s king.

1847    H. Staunton Chess-player’s Handbk. 20   When the King is directly attacked by the Piece played, it is a simple check; but when the Piece moved does not itself give check, but unmasks another which does, it is called a discovered check.

1847    H. Staunton Chess-player’s Handbk. 28   A striking though simple instance of the power of a discovered check.

1847    H. Staunton Chess-player’s Handbk. 29   White must play his Rook to K.Kt.’s sixth square, discovering check with the Bishop.

1870    F. Hardy & J. R. Ware Mod. Hoyle , Chess 42   Double Check is when check is discovered‥the King being also attacked by the piece moved.

 4. To divulge, reveal, disclose to knowledge (anything secret or unknown); to make known. arch.

 a. With simple obj.

a1300    Cursor M. 28293 (Cott.) ,   Priuetis o fremyd and frende I haue discouerd als vn-hende.

a1375    William of Palerne l. 3192   Þis dede schal i neuer deschuuer.

c1386    Chaucer Canon’s Yeoman’s Prol. & Tale 143   Thou sclaundrest me‥And eek discouerest that thou sholdest hyde.

c1470    J. Hardyng Chron. ii. i,   The youngest suster the mater all discured To her husbande.

?c1475    Sqr. lowe Degre 868   Anone he made hym swere His counsayl he should never diskere.

1597    Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iii. i. 142   Ah Noble Prince I can discouer all The most vnlucky mannage of this brawle.

1662    J. Davies tr. J. A. de Mandelslo Trav. 5   They contain some secrets which Time will discover.

1712    W. Rogers Cruising Voy. 9   [I] now thought it fit to discover to our Crew whither we were bound.

1751    Johnson Rambler No. 97. ⁋14   He honestly discovers the state of his fortune.

b. With subord. clause.

1600    Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing i. ii. 10   The prince discouered to Claudio that he loued my niece your daughter.

1845    J. H. Newman Lett. & Corr. (1891) II. 460   Continually do I pray that He would discover to me if I am under a delusion.

†c. absol. Obs.

14..    Lydgate Temple Glas 629   Lich him þat‥knoweþ not, to whom forto discure.

1659    T. Burton Diary (1828) IV. 302   All means were used to make him discover, but he‥would not confess.

†5. To reconnoitre. Also absol. Obs.

1487  (1380)    J. Barbour Bruce (St. John’s Cambr.) xiv. 268   Furth till discouir, thair way thai ta.

1553    G. Douglas tr. Virgil Eneados ix. iii. 196   Of the nycht wach the cure We geif Mesapus, the ȝettis to discure.

1572    Taill of Rauf Coilȝear (1882) 798   Derfly ouir Daillis, discouerand the doun, Gif ony douchtie that day for Iornayis was dicht.

1592    H. Unton Corr. (1847) 330   The king this day goeth to the warr to discover.

1600    E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 211   He issued foorth‥with his whole army, onely with an intent to discover.

 6. To reveal the identity of (a person); hence, to betray. arch.

c1320    Sir Beues 74   Maseger, do me surte, þat þow nelt nouȝt discure me To no wiȝt!

c1386    Chaucer Merchant’s Tale 698   Mercy, and that ye nat discouere me.

1465    J. Daubeney in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) II. 350   A told me‥in noo wyse þat ye dyskure not Master Stevyn.

1599    Warning for Faire Women ii. 524   Whither shal I fly? The very bushes wil dis-cover me.

1632    J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena 71   When hee asked who hee was, the Marquesse durst not discover him (so strictly was he tied by promise to conceale him).

1726    W. R. Chetwood Voy. Capt. Boyle 264   She at last discover’d herself to me: She was Daughter-in-Law to [etc.].

1865    C. Kingsley Hereward xix,   He was on the point of discovering himself to them.

†7. a. To manifest, exhibit, display (an attribute, quality, feeling, etc.). Obs.

c1430    Pilgr. Lyf Manhode (1869) i. cxxv. 66   It is michel more woorth‥þan to diskeuere his iustice, and to say, bihold mi swerde whiche i haue vnshethed you.

1576    A. Fleming tr. Erasmus in Panoplie Epist. 338   M. Clemens, to whome S. T. Moore hathe discovered a fewe sparckles of his benevolence towardes mee.

1589    R. Greene Menaphon sig. C3v,   I haue not‥store of plate to discouer anie wealth.

1615    J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 213   He will enter into a Taverne‥onely to discover his gold lace and scarlet.

1682    J. Bunyan Holy War 171   With what agility‥did these military-men discover their skill in feats of War.

1771    J. Reynolds Disc. Royal Acad. iv. (1876) 347   He takes as much pains to discover, as the greater artist does to conceal, the marks of his subordinate assiduity.

 b. esp. To manifest by action; to display (unconsciously or unintentionally); to exhibit, betray, allow to be seen or perceived. arch.

c1460    La Belle Dame 403 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 65   If youre grace to me be Discouerte, Thanne be your meane soon shulde I be relevyd.

1556    tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. K4,   Then yowre regard discouerethe‥the desire of yowre harte.

1600    E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 117   The more he mounted, the more he discovered his incapacitie.

1658    Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia iii. 49   The remaining bones discovered his proportion.

1739    C. Labelye Short Acct. Piers Westm. Bridge 59   The Timber‥discover’d a strong Smell of Turpentine upon the first Stroke of a Plane.

a1856    W. Hamilton Lect. Metaphysics (1859) I. xviii. 341   She had never discovered a talent for poetry or music.

1887    Times 27 Aug. 11/3   He was bitten by a pet fox which subsequently discovered symptoms of rabies.

 c. With subord. clause.

a1599    Spenser View State Ireland in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) 50   The which name doth discover them also to be auncient English.

1623    J. Mead Let. 1 Mar. in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1824) 1st Ser. III. 126   How could that discover they were for Spaine?

1713    Pope in Guardian 16 Mar. 1/2   A lofty Gentleman whose Air and Gait discovered when he had published a new Book.

1802–3    F. W. Blagdon in tr. P. S. Pallas Trav. Southern Provinces Russ. Empire (1812) I. 425   All the Nagais still discover by their features, that they are of Mongolian origin.

1856    R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits i. 22   Rousseau’s Confessions had discovered to him [sc. Carlyle] that he was not a dunce.

 8. To obtain sight or knowledge of (something previously unknown) for the first time; to come to the knowledge of; to find out.

 a. With simple obj.

1555    R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. i. f. 2,   Colonus‥in this fyrst nauigation‥discouered .vj. Ilandes.

1585    T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. v. 4   Wee discovered at the Seas two Foystes which came even towardes the place where we were.

1670    E. Maynwaring Pharmacopœian Physician’s Repos. 90   This alkalisate property was first discovered by preparation and tryals.

1783    H. Blair Lect. Rhetoric x. (Seager),   We invent things that are new; we discover what was before hidden. Galileo invented the telescope; Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood.

1840    Penny Cycl. XVI. 176   Banks’s Islands‥were discovered by Captain Bligh in 1789.

1860    J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. xvii. 317   The sounds continued without our being able to discover their source.

 b. With subord. clause or inf. phr.

1556    tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. B8,   Your loue shal be discouered to be false.

1676    Lister in Ray’s Corr. (1848) 125,   I am glad you have discovered those authors to be plagiaries.

1726    Swift Gulliver I. ii. viii. 153   He sent out his Long-boat to discover what I was.

1868    J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. vi. 228   Dr. Wollaston in‥1802 discovered that there were dark lines crossing the spectrum in different places.

1892    Sir H. E. Lopes in Law Times’ Rep. LXVII. 150/2   The defendant Burton says he discovered that he had made a mistake.

 c. To catch sight of; to sight, descry, espy. arch.

1576–90    Bible (Tomson) Acts xxi. 3   And when we had discouered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand.

1585    T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. xi. 13   In the evening we discovered the citie of Gigeri.

1660    F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 23   From the top of the hill you discover Aden, standing in a large plain.

1726    W. R. Chetwood Voy. Capt. Boyle 373   November 3, we discover’d England, whose Chalky Cliffs gave us all a vast Delight.

1817    Shelley Laon & Cythna vii. xl. 176   Day was almost over, When thro’ the fading light I could discover A ship approaching.

 d. spec. To bring to public notice, make famous or fashionable.

1908    Busy Man’s Mag. Sept. 114/2   It is interesting just here to note that while editor of the Westminster, Mr. Macdonald ‘discovered’ Ralph Connor (Rev. Dr. Gordon), the celebrated Canadian novelist.

1926    M. Baring Daphne Adeane i. 3   She was merged in the ranks of the unnoticed, till she was suddenly ‘discovered’.

1932    Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Sept. 625/3   In a very short time she had producers‥vying with each other for the honour of ‘discovering’ her.

1963    J. Fleming Death of Sardine iii. 41   One day, when Trigoso Praia, or Plage, was ‘discovered’ the road might be an important promenade.

†9. To bring into fuller knowledge; to explore (a country, district, etc.). Obs.

1582    N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias lxxv. 154   In commission to go & discouer the red Sea with the Countreyes adiacent.

1670    J. Narborough Jrnl. in Acct. Several Late Voy. (1711) i. 43,   I sent in my Boat to discover the Harbour, and see if the Pink was there.

1751    S. Whatley England’s Gazetteer at Tingmouth-West,   The Danes landed here in 970, to discover the country previous to their invasion of it.

1850    W. H. Prescott Hist. Conquest Peru II. 192   He was empowered to discover and occupy the country for the distance of two hundred leagues.

†10.

 a. intr. To make discoveries, to explore. Obs.

1582    N. Lichefield tr. F. L. de Castanheda 1st Bk. Hist. Discouerie E. Indias iv. 10 b,   Vpon Christmas daye, they had discouered along the Coast, three score and tenne leagues to the Eastward.

1685    N. Crouch Eng. Empire in Amer. ii. 39   Capt. Henry Hudson in 1607 discovered farther North toward the Pole than perhaps any before him.

1821    R. Southey Exped. Orsua 129   We set out from Peru for the river Maranham, to discover and settle there.

†b. To have or obtain a view: to look; to see.

1588    T. Hickock tr. C. Federici Voy. & Trauaile f. 27v,   Standing at the one gate, you may discouer to the other.

1647    J. Saltmarsh Sparkles of Glory (1847) 141   They that have discovered up into free~grace or the mystery of salvation.

1653    H. Holcroft tr. Procopius Hist. Wars i. 20   From a hil discovering round, they saw a dust, and soon after a great troop of Vandals.

1667    G. Digby Elvira ii. 27   There’s no body in the street, it is so light One may discover a mile.

1711    Pope Ess. Crit. 37   He steer’d securely, and discover’d far, Led by the Light of the Mæonian Star.

†11. trans. and intr. To distinguish, discern. Obs.

1620    Horæ Subsecivæ 453   This kind of Flatterie‥is so closely intermixed with friendship, that it can hardly be discouered from it.

1652    W. Brough Sacred Princ. (ed. 2) 447   Discover better betwixt the Spirit of God, and the World.

1663    Marquis of Worcester Cent. Names & Scantlings Inventions vi,   Far as Eye can discover black from white.

1796    E. Parsons Myst. Warning III. 59   A semblance of honour I had not the penetration to discover from a reality.

Derivatives

  diˈscovering n. and adj.

a1375    William of Palerne l. 1044,   I drede me of descuuering, for ȝe haue dwelled long.

1477    Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Hist. Jason (1913) 49   The mouth whiche is instrument of the dischargyng and discouering of hertes.

1489  (1380)    J. Barbour Bruce (Adv.) i. 242   Thus contrar thingis euir-mar, Discoweryngis off ye toyer ar.

1555    R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 311v,   The fyrste discouerynge of the Weste Indies.

1583    A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Deut. lviii. 349   To the end they might not vse any odde shiftes to keepe their naughtinesse from discouering.

a1631    Donne in Cornhill Mag. May (1865) 618   All will spy in thy face A blushing, womanly, discovering grace.

1663    B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 19   The middle Transome would be opposite to a mans eye, hindersome to the free discovering of the Countrey.

1668    Earl of Clarendon Contempl. Psalms in Tracts (1727) 668   Who love such discovering words [etc.].

1723    J. Woodward Ess. Nat. Hist. Earth (ed. 3) 244   Rivers and Rains also, are instrumental to the Discovering of Amber.

Additions series 1993-7

 d. Theatr. pass. or pa. pple. Of a person: to be disclosed on stage in a particular position or state as the curtain rises. (Usu. in stage directions.)

1716 [see sense 3a].

1780    R. B. Sheridan School for Scandal i. i. 1   Lady Sneerwell and Snake discovered at a tea-table.

c1852    D. Boucicault Corsican Brothers i. i. 5   Marie discovered singing while she sits at her spinning wheel.

?1884    W. S. Gilbert Sorcerer (new ed.) ii. 18   All the peasantry are discovered asleep on the ground.

1920    E. O’Neill Beyond Horizon iii. i. 124   At the rise of the curtain Ruth is discovered sitting by the stove.

1973    A. Ayckbourn Time & Time Again i. i. 1   When the Curtain rises, Leonard, a man in his late thirties, is discovered in the conservatory.

Therein lies the present paradox: work has triumphed over all the other ways of existing, at the same time as workers have become superfluous. The gains made in productivity, relocation, mechanization, automation, and the digitization of production have gone so far that they have reduced the amount of living labor necessary for the creation of each commodity to almost nothing. We’re living out the paradox of a society full of workers with no work, where distractions, consumption, and leisure are only ever just a further indictment of the insufficiency that they must distract us from.  

“The Coming Insurrection” (PDF)

1 

NOW list to my morning’s romanza, I tell the signs of the Answerer, 
To the cities and farms I sing as they spread in the sunshine before me.

A young man comes to me bearing a message from his brother, 
How shall the young man know the whether and when of his brother? 
Tell him to send me the signs. And I stand before the young man face to face, and take his right hand in my left hand and his left hand in my right hand, 
And I answer for his brother and for men, and I answer for him that answers for all, and send these signs.

Him all wait for, him all yield up to, his word is decisive and final, 
Him they accept, in him lave, in him perceive themselves as amid light, 
Him they immerse and he immerses them.

Beautiful women, the haughtiest nations, laws, the landscape, people, animals, 
The profound earth and its attributes and the unquiet ocean, (so tell I my morning’s romanza,) 
All enjoyments and properties and money, and whatever money will buy, 
The best farms, others toiling and planting and he unavoidably reaps, 
The noblest and costliest cities, others grading and building and he domiciles there, 
Nothing for any one but what is for him, near and far are for him, the ships in the offing, 
The perpetual shows and marches on land are for him if they are for anybody.

He puts things in their attitudes, 
He puts to-day out of himself with plasticity and love, 
He places his own times, reminiscences, parents, brothers and 
sisters, associations, employment, politics, so that the rest 
never shame them afterward, nor assume to command them.

He is the Answerer, 
What can be answer’d he answers, and what cannot be answer’d he shows how it cannot be answer’d.

A man is a summons and challenge, 
(It is vain to skulk – do you hear that mocking and laughter? do you hear the ironical echoes?)

Books, friendships, philosophers, priests, action, pleasure, pride, beat up and down seeking to give satisfaction, 
He indicates the satisfaction, and indicates them that beat up and down also.

Whichever the sex, whatever the season or place, he may go freshly and gently and safely by day or by night, 
He has the pass-key of hearts, to him the response of the prying of hands on the knobs.

His welcome is universal, the flow of beauty is not more welcome or universal than he is, 
The person he favors by day or sleeps with at night is blessed.

Every existence has its idiom, every thing has an idiom and tongue, 
He resolves all tongues into his own and bestows it upon men, and any man translates, and any man translates himself also, 
One part does not counteract another part, he is the joiner, he sees how they join.

He says indifferently and alike How are you friend? to the President at his levee, 
And he says Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field, 
And both understand him and know that his speech is right.

He walks with perfect ease in the capitol, 
He walks among the Congress, and one Representative says to another, 
Here is our equal appearing and new.

Then the mechanics take him for a mechanic, 
And the soldiers suppose him to be a soldier, and the sailors that he has follow’d the sea, 
And the authors take him for an author, and the artists for an artist, 
And the laborers perceive he could labor with them and love them, 
No matter what the work is, that he is the one to follow it or has follow’d it, 
No matter what the nation, that he might find his brothers and sisters there.

The English believe he comes of their English stock, 
A Jew to the Jew he seems, a Russ to the Russ, usual and near, removed from none.

Whoever he looks at in the traveler’s coffee-house claims him, 
The Italian or Frenchman is sure, the German is sure, the Spaniard is sure, and the island Cuban is sure, 
The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the 
Mississippi or St. Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Paumanok sound, claims him.

The gentleman of perfect blood acknowledges his perfect blood, 
The insulter, the prostitute, the angry person, the beggar, see themselves in the ways of him, he strangely transmutes them, 
They are not vile any more, they hardly know themselves they are so grown.

2 
The indications and tally of time, 
Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs, 
Time, always without break, indicates itself in parts, 
What always indicates the poet is the crowd of the pleasant company of singers, and their words, 
The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or dark, but the words of the maker of poems are the general light and dark, 
The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality, 
His insight and power encircle things and the human race, 
He is the glory and extract thus far of things and of the human race.

The singers do not beget, only the Poet begets, 
The singers are welcom’d, understood, appear often enough, but rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the maker of poems, the Answerer, 
(Not every century nor every five centuries has contain’d such a 
day, for all its names.)

The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers, 
The name of each is, eye-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet-singer, night-singer, parlor-singer, love-singer, weird-singer, or something else.

All this time and at all times wait the words of true poems, 
The words of true poems do not merely please, 
The true poets are not followers of beauty but the august masters of 
beauty; 
The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers and 
fathers, 
The words of true poems are the tuft and final applause of science.

Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness of body, withdrawnness, 
Gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness, such are some of the words of poems.

The sailor and traveler underlie the maker of poems, the Answerer, 
The builder, geometer, chemist, anatomist, phrenologist, artist, all these underlie the maker of poems, the Answerer.

The words of the true poems give you more than poems, 
They give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war, peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily life, and every thing else, 
They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes, 
They do not seek beauty, they are sought, 
Forever touching them or close upon them follows beauty, longing, fain, love-sick.

They prepare for death, yet are they not the finish, but rather the outset, 
They bring none to his or her terminus or to be content and full, 
Whom they take they take into space to behold the birth of stars, to learn one of the meanings, 
To launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless rings and never be quiet again.

—W.W.

The moment of intense frustration when in comes crashing the realization that you cannot ever and will not ever read all of the things that you want to have read, while wanting, just as intensely, to be reading all of it, all at once, right then, as you walk through your library looking at the shelves and thinking of everything that might be related and that also should be there, on your shelves if not in your head.

Why is there not a word for that?

Then when one hundred years had passed away, a son shining as the sun pierced the left side of the king endowed with a mighty soul, and came forth. And the son was possessed of mighty strength. Nor did Yuvanaswa die—which itself was strange. Then Indra of mighty strength came to pay him a visit. And the deities enquired of the great Indra, ‘What is to be sucked by this boy?’ Then Indra introduced his own forefinger into his mouth. And when the wielder of the thunderbolt said, ‘He will suck me,’ the dwellers of heaven together with Indra christened the boy Mandhata, (literally, Me he shall suck). Then the boy having tasted the forefinger extended by Indra, became possessed of mighty strength, and he grew thirteen cubits, O king. And O great king! the whole of sacred learning together with the holy science of arms, was acquired by that masterful boy, who gained all that knowledge by the simple and unassisted power of his thought.

— Mahabharata