proteiformadj.

1724 W. Stukeley Of Spleen 65 The concomitant symptoms must be as proteiform as can possibly be imagin'd.

1751 G. Cleghorn Observ. Epidemical Dis. Minorca iii. 153 After this Manner these proteiform Distempers continue to vary their Shape in every Period.

1793 Critical Rev. 9 183 Pathologists have, within these last years, differed greatly respecting the cause of this Proteiform disease [sc. gout].

1833 B. G. Babington tr. J. F. C. Hecker Black Death ii. 20 This violent disease..is proteiform in its varieties.

1853 H. Lushington Italian War (1859) 237 Such a string as never was put together before of..all the possible proteiform transformations of an absolute and impartial egotism.

1862 H. Spencer First Princ. ii. xiii. §112. 371 When we turn from these proteiform specks of living jelly..we find differences of tissue.

1929 Mod. Philol. 27 103 One of the most striking words in Traina's dictionary is that which appears under the forms midè, midemma, midemmi, mirè, miremma, vidè, videmma, videmmi... Traina suggested OFr medesme as the origin of this proteiform word.

1963 Jrnl. Warburg & Courtauld Instit. 26 69 The author's ingenuity assumes an almost contrapuntal complexity and henceforth almost almost every major image or character is of proteiform significance.

2002 E. Murphy-Lejeune Student Mobility & Narr. in Europe x. 215 The fourth set of factors relates to what the students call ‘ease’ or ‘self-confidence’. This element is proteiform.