evanescent
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
botany
electrical-engineering
electromagnetism
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
sciences
Etymology: Borrowed from French évanescent (“evanescent”), from Latin ēvānēscēns (“disappearing, vanishing”), present participle of ēvānēscō (“to disappear, vanish; to die out, fade away; to lapse”), from ē- (variant of ex- (prefix meaning ‘away, out’)) + vānēscō (“to vanish”) (from vānus (“empty, vacant, void”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon, leave”)) + -ēscō (suffix forming verbs with the sense ‘to become’)).
Inflected forms:
form: more evanescent
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most evanescent
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Disappearing, vanishing.
pos: adj
examples: He cannot ſuppreſs his diſapprobation […] of thoſe evaneſcent echoes of ſchool philoſophy, faint-warbling through the grove of letters, to the injury of natural and ſcientific knowledge, and the annoyance of English literature.
The sea was each little bird's great playmate. […] In their airy flutterings, they seemed to rest on the evanescent spray.
I trust your love which will work wonders; and I trust my own, which sprang at a look but only gathered strength and permanence when I found that the soul of the man I love bettered his outward attractions, making the ideal of my foolish girlhood seem as unsubstantial and evanescent as a dream in the glowing noontide.
gloss: Disappearing, vanishing.
pos: adj
examples: Consequently, the electromagnetic fields have plane-wave characteristics in local regions, except immediately adjacent to a caustic where there is a rapid transition from the wavelike behavior of the local plane-wave fields to the evanescent behavior beyond the ray path.
The analyte directly affects the optical properties of a waveguide, such as evanescent waves (electromagnetic waves generated in the medium outside the optical waveguide when light is reflected from within) or surface plasmons (resonances induced by an evanescent wave in a thin film deposited on a waveguide surface).
gloss: Disappearing, vanishing.
pos: adj
examples: […] I choſe rather to reduce the demonſtrations of the following propoſitions to the firſt and laſt ſums and ratio's of naſcent and evaneſcent quantities, that is, to the limits of thoſe ſums and ratio's; […] Perhaps it may be objected, that there is no ultimate proportion of evaneſcent quantities; becauſe the proportion, before the quantities have vaniſhed, is not the ultimate, and when they are vaniſhed, is none. […] [B]y the ultimate ratio of evaneſcent quantities is to be underſtood the ratio of the quantities, not before they vaniſh, nor afterwards, but with which they vaniſh.
And what are theſe Fluxions? The Velocities of evaneſcent Increments? And what are theſe ſame evaneſcent Increments? They are neither finite Quantities, nor Quantities infinitely ſmall, nor yet nothing. May we not call them the Ghoſts of departed Quantities?
Some hold the evaneſcent increments to be real quantities, ſome to be nothings, ſome to be limits. As many Men, ſo many minds: Each differing one from another, and all from Sir Iſaac Newton.
[Leonhard] Euler emphasized that the derivative is the ratio of the evanescent differentials and said that the integral calculus was concerned with finding the function itself.
gloss: Barely there; almost imperceptible.
pos: adj
examples: If the Fluids moving in an Evaneſcent Artery [i.e., a capillary] appear Globular, I ſuppose its becauſe the Canal is round, which alters the Caſe much.
Here are Sholes and Sholes, of various Characters, and of the moſt diverſified Sizes; from the gigantic Whale, whoſe flouncings "tempeſt the Ocean," to the evaneſcent Anchovy, whoſe Subſtance diſſolves in the ſmalleſt Fircaſſee.
Her face too was fresh in colour, but it was of a totally different quality—soft and evanescent, like the light under a heap of rose-petals.
While he was speaking the hands on the face of the clock behind the great man's back—a heavy, glistening affair of massive scrolls in the same dark marble as the mantelpiece, and with a ghostly, evanescent tick—had moved through the space of seven minutes.
If in the middle of summer the water of Turkey Creek […] is whipped and beaten with a stick, and then if a fire-brand is passed over, a mist is enkindled and a faint evanescent flame runs over the entire width of the brook.
And I was pale, and clear, and evanescent, like the light, and they were dark, and close, and constant, like the shadow.
If we could remove everything from a piece of space, […] then there would still be quantum fluctuations of fields and virtual particles, bouncing to and fro against the wall of nothing. Ironically enough, this piece of space, filled with so many evanescent entities, is nowadays called vacuum. However, this vacuum is not nothing. It is a quantum vacuum to which the argument of the Ancient Greeks does not apply.
gloss: Ephemeral, fleeting, momentary.
pos: adj
examples: It is to be obſerved, farther, that when we annihilate any thing in our Mind, we conſider it as ſomething evaneſcent, and removed out of Sight; […]
But alas! how momentary was the bliss!—the evaneſcent viſion ſoon fled, and the youthful queen [Mary, Queen of Scots] was arrayed in the melancholy garb of widowhood!
She comforted him by words of the happiest import, uttered in low tones—but words that sealed their impress on the memory and the heart; but she was now so worn, and appeared so evanescent, that every instant he feared she would expire before him. Isabella saw his suffering, and suggested that "he had better depart—she would herself remain."
In times of strong emotion mankind disdain all base considerations; but such times are evanescent. The permanent constitutional condition of the manufactured man, thought Ahab, is sordidness.
gloss: Ephemeral, fleeting, momentary.
pos: adj
examples: Upward it [the "apennine adonis", probably the Pyrenean pheasant's eye (Adonis pyrenaica)] is of a pale green, with ſome Tinge of yellowiſh; and it is all the Way duſted with little grey tranſparent Globules. Theſe are the Extremities of ſo many round evaneſcent ſecretory Ducts; as the Hairs of other Plants are the more permanent Extremities of theirs.
Per[ianth]. Berry from the receptacle elongated into a cup globular, ſucculent, gaging at the top, colour'd, at length waſting from dryneſs, evaneſcent.
Leaves solitary or numerous, sometimes evanescent or rarely wanting, radical or cauline, alternate or occasionally whorled, simple, varying from a sheathing bract to a definite blade which is membranaceous, papyraceous, coriaceous or fleshy, flat or plicate, usually parallel-veined.
Related words: evanesce
Derived words: evanescence
evanescently
multiple evanescent white dot syndrome
nonevanescent
unevanescent
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: намаляващ
roman: namaljavašt
lang: Bulgarian
word: изчезващ
roman: izčezvašt
lang: Catalan
word: evanescent
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 消逝
roman: xiāoshì
lang: Dutch
word: verdwijnend
lang: Dutch
word: verzwindend
lang: French
word: évanescent
lang: German
word: verschwindend
lang: German
word: schwindend
lang: German
word: evaneszent
lang: German
word: vergänglich
lang: German
word: dahinschwindend
lang: Italian
word: evanescente
lang: Italian
word: indistinto
lang: Māori
word: memeha
lang: Occitan
word: evanescent
lang: Occitan
word: fugidís