palingenesis

Noun

palingenesis (countable and uncountable, plural palingeneses)

1. (also, figuratively, uncountable) Rebirth; regeneration; (countable) an instance of this.
   • The elegant and fashionable female of London, would start back with horror and consternation—with loathing and disgust—could palingeneses of her ancient ancestors be presented to her.1836 February 27, Ed. Binns, “A Few Facts, Preliminary to a Philosophical Examination of Negro Intellect”, in The London Medical and Surgical Journal, volume I, number 5, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page...
   • If in connection with [Friedrich] Schleiermacher we reflect on the method of his speculations and on the contrasts which intersect each other, it can hardly be called a leap if we pass from him to the two men who were designated above […] as those who improved the System of Identity. For one of...1892, Johann Eduard Erdmann, “Second Division. Attempts at a Reconstruction of Philosophy.”, in Williston S. Hough, transl., edited by J[ohn] H[enry] Muirhead, A History of Philosophy […] (Library of...

   Synonyms:

   palingenesia, palingenesy, renaissance, resuscitation, revival

   1. (also, figuratively) The recurrence of historical events in the same order in an infinite series of cycles.
      • Schelling set himself the fundamental task of establishing a channel of ascensional intelligibility from the origins of creation to man, and even beyond man, in which the doctrines of survival and palingenesis, so dear to the Gnostics, found all their significance. Thus, the evolution of nature was...2012, Michel Meulders, Helmholtz: From Enlightenment to Neuroscience, page 28
   2. (also, figuratively, historical) Spiritual rebirth through the transmigration of the soul.
      • [I]t was averred that all germs, or ova, were originally created—each thing living at this hour, having proceeded from a germ which was included within the germ of its antecedent, back as far as the original creation; […] This evolution doctrine was opposed by the Pythagorean idea of a...1848, Charles D[elucena] Meigs, “Letter XXIX”, in Females and Their Diseases; a Series of Letters to His Class, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 387
      • To appear again as identically the same, would require the palingenesis of Plato, that is, the recommencement of all things, so as to have the same series of causes and effects from the very beginning; but this creed implies the finality of God's power in the phenomenal universe, and Plato never...1849 October, R. H. Whitelocke, “Art. V.—1. Der Mensch nach den verschiedenen Seiten seiner Natur, order Anthropologie für das gebildete Publikum. Von K. F. Burdach. Stuttgart. 1836. […] [book...
2. (historical, obsolete, uncountable) The apparent repetition, during the development of a single embryo, of changes that occurred previously in the evolution of its species.
   • [P]alingenesis is to be seen in the Ectoprocta, cœnogenesis in the Entoprocta.1882 August, “Summary of Current Researches Relating to Zoology and Botany (Principally Invertebrata and Cryptogamia), Microscopy, &c., Including Original Communications from Fellows and Others”, in...
   • Now that all mammals are led back to a distant diphyodont stem, it is also true that the further we go back both in palingenesis and embryogenesis, the more widespread heterodontism is—all modern homodontism proving to be secondary.1894, Henry Fairfield Osborn, “Address by Henry Fairfield Osborn, Vice President, Section F [Zoölogy]. The Rise of the Mammalia in North America.”, in Frederic W[ard] Putnam, editor, Proceedings of...

   Synonyms:

   palingeny, recapitulation

   Antonyms:

   caenogenesis

3. (uncountable) The regeneration of magma by the melting of metamorphic rocks.
   • This process of regeneration of magma has been called palingenesis by [Jakob] Sederholm, who ascribes to it many of the Archæan granite and granodiorite masses of Fennoscandia.1926 November 11, G[eorge] W[alter] Tyrrell, “Metasomatism and Additive Processes of Metamorphism”, in The Principles of Petrology: An Introduction to the Science of Rocks, 10th edition, London...
   • Sedimentary rocks may weather to produce more sedimentary rocks; they may be metamorphosed to produce metamorphic rocks; or they may be transformed to magma by palingenesis.1949, Caleb Wroe Wolfe, This Earth of Ours: Past and Present, Revere, Mass.: Earth Science Pub. Co., published 1950, →OCLC, page 58