imaginationn.
/ᵻˌmadʒᵻˈneɪʃn/, U.S. /ᵻˌmædʒəˈneɪʃ(ə)n/ 1.
a. The power or capacity to form internal images or ideas of objects and situations not actually present to the senses, including remembered objects and situations, and those constructed by mentally combining or projecting images of previously experienced qualities, objects, and situations. Also (esp. in modern philosophy): the power or capacity by which the mind integrates sensory data in the process of perception.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > memory > [noun]
i-mindOE
mindc1175
imagination1340
memoriala1393
memorya1393
recordationa1398
remembrance?c1425
recollection1734
memory box1832
remembery1882
mnemotechnic1922
memory bank1952
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [noun]
sightc1175
thoughtc1175
imagination1340
thinking1340
conceptiona1387
imaginativea1398
phantasm1490
concept1536
fetch1549
conceit1556
conceiving1559
fancy1581
notion1647
fantastic1764
ideality1815
ideoplasty1884
phantastikon1917
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [noun] > act of imagining
imagination1340
conceptiona1387
imaginingc1430
suppositiona1529
conceiving1559
picturing1562
conceiting1563
fancy1581
forgery1582
surmise1592
imagery1595
imaging1648
ideation1818
envisagement1877
visualizing1880
envisaging1883
visualization1883
envisioning1938
projecting1960
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 158 Oþerhuil hit is ase to þe þoȝte, oþer ase to þe ymaginacion.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. iii. vi. 95 Þe þridde hatte ymaginacioun, þerby þe soule biholdeþ þe liknes of bodiliche þinges þat beþ absent.
1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. aij/1 The comune vnderstondyng is better content to the ymagynacion local.
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens ii. sig. Ejv In the fyrste parte of the ventricle before is put ye common blode. In the seconde ye vertue of ymagynacyon.
1673 E. Stillingfleet Serm. xii. 225 I would fain understand how men ever came to be abused with the notion of Religion,..if there were not some faculties in them above those of sense and imagination?
1751 J. Harris Hermes iii. iv. 354 We have..a Faculty, called Imagination or Fancy..which retains the fleeting Forms of things, when Things themselves are gone, and all Sensation at an end.
1840 J. S. Mill Bentham in Diss. & Disc. (1859) I. 353 The Imagination..to which the name is generally appropriated by the best writers of the present day [is] that which enables us, by a voluntary effort, to conceive the absent as if it were present.
1881 F. M. Müller tr. I. Kant Critique Pure Reason II. 89 Without this the faculty of empirical imagination would never find anything to do that it is able to do, and remain therefore buried within our mind.
1944 G. F. Thomas Vitality of Christian Trad. ii. ix. 259 Evidence from the senses, imagination, revelation, or any other source which did not fit consistently into such a system was simply rejected or explained away.
2000 T. Eagleton Idea of Culture ii. 45 The imagination is the faculty by which one can empathize with others—by which, for example, you can feel your way into the unknown territory of another culture.
b. An inner image or idea of an object or objects not actually present to the senses; often with the implication that the idea does not correspond to the reality of things. Also: †the action or an act of forming such an image or idea (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > mental image, idea, or fancy > [noun]
huea1000
imagination1340
imagea1393
portraiturea1393
trowc1460
fume1531
imaginary1594
phantasm1594
trajection1594
representationa1602
idolum1619
object1651
tablature1661
fancy1663
representamen1677
phantom1686
presentment1817
fantasy1823
projection1836
visuality1841
thought-picture1844
imago1863
vestige1885
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 47 (MED) Þe gost of fornicacion..makeþ uerst come þe þoȝtes and þe likinges and þe ymaginacions of zenne to herte.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xx. l. 33 (MED) Wenynge is no wysdome ne wyse ymagynacioun.
a1475 J. Fortescue Governance of Eng. (Laud) (1885) 128 (MED) We nede in this case to vse coniecture and ymaginacion.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) xxxvii. 7 Þe fende..tourmentis my body and trauails my saule in vayn ymagynaciouns.
1530 Myroure Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) i. 41 Anon ymaginacions of the same thynges come to his mynde.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Solon in Panoplie Epist. 193 They..accounted his undoubted divinations, madde immaginations.
1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding iii. v. 206 When we speak of Justice, or Gratitude, we frame to our selves no Imagination of any thing existing.
1761 D. Hume Hist. Eng. III. xlv. 8 (note) Could such an imagination ever have been entertained by him?
1829 J. Mill Anal. Human Mind (1869) I. vii. 239 I am said to have an imagination when I have a train of ideas.
1896 Duke of Argyll Philos. Belief 223 The truths which they proclaimed were facts and not imaginations.
1924 P. Grainger Let. in All-round Man (1994) 68 The island seems to a Gauguinite like the imaginations of that great genius come to life & living on after his time.
2002 S. Rasegård Man & Sci. iv. 65 The individual..is able to form symbols to give durable expressions of his thoughts—thoughts which can form imaginations that anything can continue even when the earthly life-span has come to an end.
2. The mind considered as engaged in imagining; a person's mind, or a part of it, represented as the place where images, ideas, and thoughts are produced and stored, or in which they are contained. Formerly also: †the inner operations of the mind in general, thinking; thought, opinion (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > [noun] > process of thinking
i-thankc1000
thoughtOE
cogitation?c1225
thinkinga1382
imaginationa1393
pansing?a1505
beating1606
brainwork1606
brain labour1638
headwork1642
thought process1850
thought-action1860
thought-production1881
nutting1951
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > [noun] > seat of
imaginationa1393
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > fancy or fantastic notion > [noun] > indulgence in
imaginationa1393
dreaminga1400
fantasying1552
fantasy1553
fancy1581
think-so1666
ideology1813
fantasticating1880
fantastication-
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) viii. l. 850 Now is sche red, nou is sche pale Riht after the condicion Of hire ymaginacion.
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 728 I wille Tellen the a propre skille And worthe a demonstracion In myn ymagynacion.
c1500 Three Kings' Sons (1895) 138 The kynge..in his ymaginacion thought to make a grete assaute vpone the Turkes loggyng.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Edward IV f. ccxxxixv Coniectures, which as often deceyve the imaginacions of fantastical folke.
a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) i. i. 81 I haue forgott him. My imagination Carries no fauour in't but Bertrams. View more context for this quotation
1632 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena 12 That neither she..nor others..came thereby to lose or gaine in the imagination of others.
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors 181 Upon the first sight thereof, it run into our imagination, that they were the Cosaques.
1706 S. Centlivre Love at Venture i. 9 The elegance of my Fabrick, has Titulated the Imagination of many a fine Lady.
1797 A. Radcliffe Italian I. i. 6 The beauty of her countenance haunting his imagination.
1828 W. Irving Life C. Columbus II. vii. ii. 167 An ardent desire to see the home of these wonderful strangers, which his imagination pictured as a region of celestial delights.
1860 All Year Round 14 June 235/2 Those persons who complain of the opprobrious epithets with which they are accosted by parrots..are simply the victims of their own morbid imagination.
1912 F. W. Hackwood W. Hone ii. 54 This work was then publishing in sixpenny numbers... It caught my imagination.
1949 ‘G. Orwell’ Nineteen Eighty-four ii. v. 154 Such a thing as an independent political movement was outside her imagination.
1980 E. Wheat Love Life for Every Married Couple vii. 89 Both husband and wife must use their imagination to fall in love, renew romantic love, or keep alive the eros love they now have.
2007 Metro (Toronto) 14 Feb. (Metro Carguide) 6/4 The so-called Pony Cars..captured the imaginations of young and old alike.
a. The scheming or devising of something; a plan, scheme, plot; a fanciful project. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > intention > planning > [noun]
compassinga1300
compassmentc1300
ordainingc1350
ordinancec1385
imaginationa1393
conjectmentc1400
before-castinga1425
forecastinga1425
imagininga1449
conjectinga1450
machinationc1550
platforming1560
plotting1593
contrivement1599
agitation1600
contrival1602
contrivage1610
projection1611
projectment1611
contrivance1647
politics1650
digestion1680
planning1730
contriving1751
scheme1790
scheming1813
schemery1822
replanning1853
mapping1856
macroplanning1966
the mind > will > intention > planning > [noun] > a plan
redeeOE
devicec1290
casta1300
went1303
ordinancec1385
intentc1386
imaginationa1393
drifta1535
draught1535
forecast1535
platform1547
ground-plat?a1560
table1560
convoy1565
design1565
plat1574
ground-plota1586
plot1587
reach1587
theory1593
game1595
projectment1611
projecting1616
navation1628
approach1633
view1634
plan1635
systema1648
sophism1657
manage1667
brouillon1678
speculationa1684
sketch1697
to take measures1698
method1704
scheme1704
lines1760
outline1760
measure1767
restorative1821
ground plan1834
strategy1834
programme1837
ticket1842
project1849
outline plan1850
layout1867
draft1879
dart1882
lurk1916
schema1939
lick1955
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) ii. 2845 (MED) Outward he doth the reverence, Bot al withinne his conscience Thurgh fals ymaginacioun He thoghte Supplantacioun.
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 166 (MED) All here lust & all hire ymaginacioun is for to putten all londes vnder hire subieccioun.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 1523 With-outen any othir affeccioun Of loue or euyl ymagynacyoun.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Lament. iii. 60 Thou hast herde their despytefull wordes (O Lorde) yee and all their ymaginacions agaynst me.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Richard III f. xlvijv That mischeuous ymaginacion whiche he nowe newely beganne and attempted.
1660 Exact Accompt Trial Regicides 9 In no Case else Imagination, or Compassing, without an actual effect of it, was punishable by our Law.
1671 H. Herbert Narrative in Camden Misc. (1990) XXX. 294 He rides post through all the imaginations of this world.
1709 J. Swift Project Advancem. Relig. 57 These airy Imaginations of introducing new Laws for the Amendment of Mankind.
1769 H. Brooke Fool of Quality IV. xvii. 132 Any imagination..tending to change the nature or form of any one of the three estates.
1801 J. Hey Disc. on Malevolent Sentiments vii. 189 If we find that a man is nourishing hostile imaginations against us, it seems as if we ought not to confine ourselves to satisfying our own consciences.
b. A person's impression as to what is likely; expectation, anticipation. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > [noun]
to-hopec888
weenOE
hopea1225
thoughta1350
opiniona1425
attentc1430
looking1440
presume?a1500
beliefa1522
expectation1527
expection1532
looking for1532
looking after?1537
expecting1568
imagination1582
expectance1593
suppose1596
expect1597
expectancy1609
apprehensiona1616
contemplationa1631
prospect1665
supposition1719
speculationa1797
augury1871
preperception1871
1582 G. Whetstone Heptameron Ciuill Disc. v. sig. Q.ii The ymagination, that time wil inuest his desire wt delight, is to the Affected, a Paradice.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 As soone as it was day, all set forward..imagining that by sun-set they should reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie. Neither were they deceiued in their imagination.
1628 T. Hobbes tr. Thucydides Peloponnesian War (1822) 106 The sickness—the only thing that exceeded the imagination of all men.
1654 A. Marvell Let. 2 June in Poems & Lett. (1971) II. 305 To tell you truly mine own Imagination, I thought He would not open it while I was there.
4. The tendency to form ideas which do not correspond to reality; the operation of fanciful, erroneous, or deluded thought. Also: an individual's fanciful erroneous, or deluded thinking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > inventive or creative faculty > creative genius > [noun]
imaginationa1393
fire1656
daimon1852
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > [noun] > poetic genius
imaginationa1393
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 410 Full of ymaginacion, Of dredes, and of wrathful thoghtes.
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Miller's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 426 Men may dyen of ymaginacion So depe may imperssion be take.
c1500 (?a1437) Kingis Quair (1939) xii (MED) This is myn awin ymagynacioun; It is no lyf that spekis unto me.
1574 T. Tymme tr. J. de Serres Three Partes Comm. Ciuill Warres Fraunce iii. 254 By this word (Substance) was not ment a corporall and grosse eating, but that the spirituall and true eating was discerned from that which was by imagination and phansie.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) ii. v. 40 Looke how imagination blowes him. View more context for this quotation
a1650 G. Boate Irelands Nat. Hist. (1652) ix. 75 As if in very deed he had..seen and suffered all those things, which his weak imagination..did figure unto him.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 136. ⁋2 My Imagination runs away with me.
1834 T. Medwin Angler in Wales I. 275 And I fancied, though it might be imagination, that her's trembled too.
1904 F. Rolfe Hadrian VII Prooimion 52 Vague thoughts ensued from these incidents; thoughts not connected with her but with some sensuous idea, some phasma of my imagination.
1960 A. R. MacAndrew tr. N. Gogol Diary of Madman & Other Stories (1961) 35 Maybe it's just imagination. How could I possibly have lost my nose so stupidly?
2007 51st London Film Festival (British Film Institute programme) 63/2 A process is started that will begin to unlock her true strength and ability by reining in her imagination and facing up to the reality of her position.
5. The mind's creativity and resourcefulness in using and inventing images, analogies, etc.; poetic or artistic genius or talent. Also: an individual's poetic or artistic genius or talent.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > inventive or creative faculty > [noun]
invention?a1505
imagination1509
wit-craft1573
inventa1605
contrivance1659
creativity1659
inventibility1662
inventiveness1668
originality1742
creativeness1805
constructiveness1815
construction1826
imagineering1942
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure (1928) xiv. 55 Upon his ymagynacyon He made also the tales of Caunterbury.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream v. i. 14 And as Imagination bodies forth the formes of things Vnknowne: the Poets penne turnes them to shapes, And giues to ayery nothing, a locall habitation, And a name. View more context for this quotation
1657 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbados 19 Nor can imagination frame so great a beauty.
1762 Ld. Kames Elements Crit. III. App. 386 This singular power of fabricating images independent of real objects, is distinguished by the name imagination.
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Biogr. Lit. (1847) I. ii. 298 (note) Compare this distinction [sc. between the Primary and Secondary Imagination] with that of the Productive and Reproductive Imagination given in the section on the Transcendental Synthesis of the Imagination..in the Kritik der reinen Vernunft [by Kant].
1848 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters (ed. 2) II. ii. iii. 132 This is imagination, properly so called; imagination associative, the grandest mechanical power that the Human intelligence possesses.
1871 C. Darwin Descent of Man I. ii. 45 The Imagination is one of the highest prerogatives of man. By this faculty he unites, independently of the will, former images and ideas, and thus creates brilliant and novel results.
1910 H. Walker Lit. Victorian Era ii. iii. 340 Newman had a reach of thought and a boldness of imagination which none of the other Catholic poets could rival.
1940 A. Noyes Pageant of Lett. 319 She moves in the higher realms of the creative imagination.
2006 Orion Nov. 1/1 You can witness such imagination at work in the writings of Lynn Margulis, who codeveloped, with James Lovelock, the Gaia theory.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
imagination-consciousness n.
ΚΠ
1901 E. B. Titchener Exper. Psychol. I. i. 1 An imagination-consciousness, our mind as it is when we are imagining something.
1991 E. T. H. Brann World of Imagination iv. 126 He [sc. Husserl] is saying that imagination-consciousness comes about when the question of existence is set aside from memory in general.
imagination-game n.
ΚΠ
1926 E. Bowen Ann Lee's 53 But the imagination-game palled upon him.
imagination image n.
ΚΠ
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xviii. 50 Imagination-images..feel subject to our spontaneity [etc.].
1999 Jrnl. Marketing Res. 36 20/1 An imagination image differs from a memory image in that..a new, never-before-experienced event is constructed.
imagination-mill n.
ΚΠ
1899 ‘M. Twain’ in Harper's Mag. Dec. 40/1 His imagination-mill was hard at work in a minute.
2002 B. C. Johnson Hearing God's Call viii. 124 Each achievement in a ministry manifests a type of growth, and this growth provides grist for the imagination mill.
imagination-monger n.
ΚΠ
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 28 June 3/2 To the exclusion of other industrious imagination-mongers.
1928 Amer. Med. 34 691/1 Medical nihilists, drugless healers, and imagination mongers, after a long time inning have proven the futility of their propaganda.
imagination process n.
ΚΠ
1890 W. James Princ. Psychol. II. xviii. 72 The imagination-process can then pass over into the sensation-process. In other words, genuine sensations can be centrally originated.
1997 M. D. Selekman Solution-focused Therapy with Children v. 114 I try to avoid giving the family any ideas, leaving the imagination process up to them.
imagination world n.
ΚΠ
1904 Daily Chron. 19 Oct. 8/1 This glimpse into the imagination-world of London.
1994 E. Bond Let. 18 May (1998) IV. 50 I call my theatre a ‘rational theatre’ because I think the imagination seeks reason to restructure itself or at least can do so. Freud understood some of these problems, he understood the importance of the ‘imagination world’.
C2. Objective.† imagination-stunning adj. Obsolete
imagination-liberating adj.
ΚΠ
1933 R. Tuve Seasons & Months i. 28 It was not the imagination-liberating concept of Nature.
2001 A. Shanks What is Truth? 152 Blake the prophet focuses on forgiveness as the imagination-liberating opposite of oppression by the powerful.
imagination-stirring adj.
ΚΠ
1933 D. Jones in C. J. Sisson T. Lodge & Other Elizabethans 253 But the line, especially with that imagination-stirring word ‘kingdome’, was well calculated to set Milton's imagination..a-roving.
2004 B. Pester Through Land of Fire ii. 150 A small sailing vessel..with the imagination-stirring name of Fortunato Bevan.
ΚΠ
1892 ‘M. Twain’ Amer. Claimant x. 88 The imagination-stunning material development of this century.
C3. Instrumental.
imagination-manufactured adj.
ΚΠ
1902 ‘M. Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. Dec. 768 The [Christian] Science..secures to him life-long immunity from imagination-manufactured disease.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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