esemplastic
/ˌɛsɛmˈplastɪk
/adjective rare
Moulding into one; unifying: Coleridge defines imagination as the esemplastic power...
- There are other novelists who seem to be able to remake themselves drastically from one novel to the next, and can find any number of grooves for their ‘esemplastic’ (Coleridge's wonderful word) genius.
- ‘Picturesque associationism and the ‘esemplastic’ romantic imagination here replace the empirical obsession of eighteenth-century travel writing’.
Derivatives
esemplastically
- Wordsworth, looking at the same tree root, and connecting it esemplastically with the One, the Whole, the ‘Wisdom and spirit of the Universe‘, would have felt joy rather than nausea.
Origin
Early 19th century: from Greek es 'into' + hen (neuter of heis 'one') + -ic; formed irregularly by Coleridge, probably suggested by German Ineinsbildung, in the same sense.