gestalt
See also: Gestalt
English
editEtymology
editBorrowed from German Gestalt (“shape, figure, form”).
Pronunciation
edit- (UK) IPA(key): /ɡəˈʃtælt/, /ɡəˈʃtɑːlt/, /-ˈst-/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /ɡəˈʃtɔlt/, /ɡəˈstɔlt/
Noun
editgestalt (plural gestalts or gestalten)
- A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its parts, due to the relationships between the parts (of a character, personality, entity, or being)
- This biography is the first one to consider fully the writer's gestalt.
- 1980, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, chapter 15, in Metaphors We Live By:
- Thus one activity, talking, is understood in terms of another, physical fighting. Structuring our experience in terms of such multidimensional gestalts is what makes our experience coherent.
- 1996, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, The Origins of Grammar, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press:
- ... depending on the kinds of speech children hear directed to them, they may first learn unanalyzed "gestalts" (e.g., social expressions like "What's that?" uttered as a single unit) instead of learning single words that are then freely recombined ...
- 2003 August, Jay Kirk, “Watching the Detectives”, in Harpers Magazine[1], volume 307, number 1839, page 61:
- The clusters of behavioral gestalten... the probability factors... the subtypes of crimes... the constellations of criminal subtypes...
- 2008, Jonathan Nasaw, Fear Itself:
- Obviously it was related to the entire gestalt of Simon's polyphobia and compensatory counterphobia. The boys used to watch horror movies on late-night television […]
- 1977, John L. Hess, Karen Hess, The Taste of America, New York: Grossman:
- Mary did not approve of the Eleanor gestalt. "I been to Woonsocket S.D., Eleanor McGovern's hometown," she said, "and nobody there? I mean nobody? dresses like that."
- 1998, David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, 1st Back Bay edition, Boston: Little, Brown and Co.:
- So different were our appearances and approaches and general gestalts that we had something of an epic rivalry from '74 through '77.
Alternative forms
editDerived terms
editDerived terms
Translations
editcollection of entities that creates a unified concept
Anagrams
editSwedish
editEtymology
editBorrowed from German Gestalt. Attested since 1623.
Pronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Noun
editgestalt c
- a figure ((shape of a) being, especially a human or human-like being)
- de centrala gestalterna i berättelsen
- the central figures (characters) in the story
- en lång gestalt skymtade i dimman
- a tall figure could be seen through the mist
- (more rarely, somewhat poetic) a shape, a form (more generally)
- a gestalt (a whole different from the sum of its parts)
Usage notes
editMore everyday-sounding compared to English gestalt in (sense 1), matching figure in tone as well.
Declension
editDeclension of gestalt | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | gestalt | gestalten | gestalter | gestalterna |
Genitive | gestalts | gestaltens | gestalters | gestalternas |
Related terms
editSee also
editReferences
editCategories:
- English terms borrowed from German
- English terms derived from German
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- Swedish terms borrowed from German
- Swedish terms derived from German
- Swedish terms with audio links
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- Swedish terms with usage examples
- Swedish poetic terms