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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

self-regenerating en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *swé? Proto-Indo-European *selbʰ-der. Proto-Germanic *selbaz Old English self Old English self- Middle English self- English self- English regenerating English self-regenerating From self- + regenerating.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable, rare) Capable of regenerating itself or oneself.
    • When it is remembered that knowledge exerts a self-expanding and self-regenerating power, and that the relations not only among the several American communities, but between all regions of the earth, are becoming more and more intimate, it is perhaps not presumptuous to suppose that the ripened fruits of the plan are to be developed in the intellectual, moral and social improvement of the whole human family. 1842, James Hall, James Ellsworth De Kay, William Williams Mather, Ebenezer Emmons, The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, Volume 2, Albany, T. Weed, D. Appleton & Company and Wiley & Putnam, page 16:
    • In that country as in France there are a few illustrious exceptions, and symbols of a self-regenerating age; symptoms of a gradual return from error, and the invincible power and majesty of truth. 1818, Friedrich von Schlegel, John Gibson Lockhart, Lectures on the History of Literature, Ancient and Modern, W. Blackwood, page 240:
    • The self-regenerating liver may not be exhausted even through thirty thousand years. Idea foresees that, however persistent may be any beautiful form, every form is temporary. 1883, William Torrey Harris, The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, D. Appleton, page 81:
    • But even granting that this self-regenerating energy were as vigorous as formerly, and that it has not more to do battle with now than heretofore, there is another and more serious question behind. 1850, The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, Volume 2, J. Nisbet, pages 399–400:
    • Among the countless substances formed by the lightnings, enzymes appeared and still later self-regenerating enzymes. Some of these were also washed into the ocean where inert organic material wras already piled up. Eventually enzymatic chemical reactions started in the sea. 1938, Reinhard Beutner, Life's Beginning on the Earth, The Williams & Wilkins Company, page 81: