Esemplastic

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɛsɛmˈplæstɪk/

Definitions

1. Having the power to shape diverse elements into a unified whole
2. The capacity to integrate and unify differing elements into a single, cohesive whole reflects an artistic or intellectual process of synthesizing diversity
3. The ability to blend varied components into a single, harmonious entity is often associated with creativity and innovation

Etymology: Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined "esemplastic" himself, and he used it as a deliberate piece of philosophical machinery. He needed a word for the mind's power to shape scattered impressions into a single whole, and he built one from Greek: "es" meaning "into", "hen" meaning "one", and "plastikos", from "plassein", "to mould". Literally, the word means something like "moulding into one". The coinage was probably modelled on the German "ineinsbildung", which carries the same sense of forming into one. Coleridge was steeped in German philosophy, and the borrowing of an idea into a new English form is typical of his method. The result is a word that sounds ancient but was made to order. Its meaning stayed close to its Greek parts. Coleridge meant the imagination's capacity to fuse many elements into one unified work, and the word still carries that sense: it describes something that unites different parts into a single shape.