transformationn.
/trɑːnsfɔːˈmeɪʃən//transfɔːˈmeɪʃən/ The action of transforming or fact of being transformed.
1. † b. A changed form; a person or thing transformed. Obsolete. rare.
a. The action of changing in form, shape, or appearance; metamorphosis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > [noun] > shaping > action or fact of changing shape
metamorphosis1447
transformation?a1475
metamorphosy1532
transfiguration1548
transforming1580
metamorphose1608
metamorphosing1608
metamorphizing1609
transformance1611
transmogrification1661
transfigurement1865
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1869) II. 209 Monstruous transformaciones of men in to bestes be made..thro charmes of wicches.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Mark i. f. 5v Transformacions and naturall chaungynges of thynges.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. ix. f. 43v Fables much lyke Ouide his transformations.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. i. 44 Vpon whose dead corpes there was such misuse, Such beastly shamelesse transformation . View more context for this quotation
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature I. 112 Matter is capable of many seeming transformations, but no real transmutations have ever been discovered.
1864 J. Bryce Holy Rom. Empire vi. 114 No more than a man feels that perpetual transformation by which his body is renewed from year to year.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > [noun] > product of transformation
metamorphosis1574
convert1589
magistery1605
transformationa1616
anagrama1631
permutation1883
a1616 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iv. v. 90 If it should come to the eare of the Court, how I haue beene transformed; and how my transformation hath beene washd, and cudgeld. View more context for this quotation
c. Theatre. More fully transformation scene: A mechanical disclosing scene in a pantomime; spec. the scene in which the principal performers were transformed in view of the audience into the players of the ensuing harlequinade.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > pantomime > [noun] > part of
harlequinade1780
opening1825
rally1853
transformation1859
1859 Punch 5 Feb. 58/2 I have supped full of gorgeous transformations on which paint, coloured foils, Dutch metal..have been lavished.
1881 Playgoer 1 Jan. A magnificent Transformation, a charming Watteau ballet scene.
1881 G. A. Sala in Illustr. London News 1 Jan. 3/2 Two Grand Transformation Scenes.
1885 W. J. Lawrence in The Theatre Dec. 329 The account of the sixth scene is worthy of quotation, smacking as it does of the modern ‘Transformation’.
1885 W. J. Lawrence in Let. During the Grimaldi era the term ‘transformation scene’ referred to that particular juncture of the performance at which the good fairy changed the hero and heroine and their two persecutors in full view of the audience into Harlequin, Columbine, Clown and Pantaloon respectively.
2. transferred. A complete change in character, condition, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > change to something else, transformation > sudden or complete change > [noun]
leapc1000
lope14..
revolution?a1439
reverse?1492
metamorphosis1548
transformation1581
earthquake1592
upside down1593
metamorphose1608
sea-changea1616
peritropea1656
transilience1657
transiliency1661
saltus1665
catastrophe1696
peristrophe1716
transiliency1769
upheaving1821
upset1822
saltation1844
shake1847
upheaval1850
cataclysm1861
shake-out1939
virage1989
1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. (1586) ii. 81 The simple soules not perceiuing that this their transformation or rather deformation, is no more seene than a pose in a mans face.
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 5 Something haue you heard Of Hamlets transformation, so I call it, Sith nor th' exterior, nor the inward man Resembles that it was.
1746–7 J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 59 To behold the prodigious transformation which has taken place on every individual.
1849 A. Alison Hist. Europe from French Revol. (new ed.) I. i. 104 The transformation of France..from a feudal confederacy..to a compact and absolute monarchy.
1900 R. J. Drummond Apost. Teaching ix. 347 A regenerative transformation of humanity is practicable.
3. In scientific uses.
a. Zoology. Change of form in animal life, as in the successive transformations of insects, etc.; metamorphosis.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > eggs or young > [noun] > young or development of young > larva > process of metamorphosis
transformation1663
complete metamorphosis1826
metamorphism1866
palingenesis1882
1663 J. Mayne tr. Lucian Part of Lucian sig. G3 A Polypus I have seen, but would gladly learn it's transformation from you.
1667 E. King in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 427 The black Speck..cast out of the Maggot in her transformation.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth VIII. 7 Of the Transformations of the Caterpillar into its corresponding Butterfly or Moth.
1874 J. Lubbock Orig. & Metamorphoses Insects i. 4 Linnæus classed them among the Coleoptera, from which however they differ in their transformations.
b. Physiology and Pathology. Change of form or substance in an organ, tissue, vital fluid, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > development, growth, or degeneration > [noun] > transformation of tissue
transformation1834
metamorphosis1844
metabolism1872
metaplasia1883
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > [noun] > alteration of tissue
organization?a1425
carnification1740
transformation1834
1834 J. Forbes tr. R. T. H. Laennec Treat. Dis. Chest (ed. 4) 587 Interstitial deposition, which..constitutes what is commonly termed transformation of the organ into a cancerous substance.
1843 J. A. Smith Productive Farming (ed. 2) 75 The excrementitious matters of one organ come in contact with another during their passage through the plant or animal, and, in consequence, suffer new transformations.
1860 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. Transformation, term for a morbid change in a part, consisting in the conversion of its texture into one of a different kind, as of the soft parts into bone or cartilage.
c. Mathematics. Change of form without alteration of quantity or value; substitution of one geometrical figure for another of equal magnitude but different form, as of a prism for a cylinder, or of one algebraical expression or equation for another of the same value; †formerly, also, alteration of the form of a solid figure by truncation of the solid angles: cf. transfigured adj. at transfigure v. Derivatives, transformed adj. Also, a change of any mathematical entity in accordance with some definite rule or rules; the rules themselves; spec. = mapping n. 2a. transformation of co-ordinates, the substitution of a new set of co-ordinates, involving a transformation of the equation of the locus. Hence, in the case in which the new co-ordinates are measured in a different plane or space, transformation is extended to the relation of correspondence between the original and resulting loci, as in projection.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun]
transformation1571
transmutation1743
the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [noun] > correspondence
correspondence1866
mapping1900
transformation1908
map1949
arrow1961
1571 T. Digges in L. Digges's Geom. Pract.: Pantometria Epist. sig. *ijv A Discourse Geometricall of the fiue regulare or Platonicall bodyes..[with] the manifolde proportions arising by mutuall conference of these solides Inscription, Circumscription or Transformation.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Transformation of an Equation, (in Algebra) the changing of any Equation into one that is more easy.
1882 G. M. Minchin Uniplanar Kinematics 234 It will be convenient to speak of this quantity K as a modulus of transformation.
1885 H. W. Watson & S. H. Burbury Math. Theory Electr. & Magn. I. 157 The method of transformation used with conjugate functions.
1908 Sci. Abstr. A. 11 687 The equations for moving bodies, when subjected to a Lorentz transformation, are converted into the corresponding equations for the transformed quantities.
1909 Proc. Section Sci. Koninklijke Akad. van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam 11 798 A continuous one-one transformation in itself of a singly connected, onesided, closed surface leaves at least one point invariant.
1941 G. Birkhoff & S. MacLane Surv. Mod. Algebra vi. 128 The ‘similarity’ transformations of space—those one-one transformations which multiply all distances by a constant factor.
1949 S. Lefschetz Introd. Topol. i. 29 If f is one to one and bicontinuous (both f and its inverse f—1 continuous), f is said to be a topological transformation or a homeomorphism.
1952 E. T. Bell Math. vi. 354 The numerical value of f(t) is unaltered when we replace the variable t by the linear expression t + 1... Thus, the value of the function is invariant under a particular linear transformation.
1958 G. T. Whyburn Topol. Anal. ii. 24 A continuous transformation will be called a mapping.
1964 W. J. Pervin Found. Gen. Topol. i. 10 Other terms for mapping are ‘function’, ‘transformation’, and ‘operator’.
1964 Oceanogr. & Marine Biol. 2 14 The correlation coefficient fu(τ) is related by a Fourier transformation to the spectrum function Fu(n).
1966 S. Beer Decision & Control vi. 109 It is possible to specify a transformation that will map the infinite set of natural numbers on to this other finite set.
1982 D. M. Schneider et al. Linear Algebra v. 181 If V and W are vector spaces, a function or transformation T from V into W is a rule that associates with every vector x in V a unique vector in W.
d. Physics. Change of form of a substance from solid to liquid, from liquid or solid to gaseous, or the reverse; Chemistry change of chemical composition, as by replacement of one constituent of a compound by another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemical reactions or processes > [noun] > chemical reactions or processes (named) > miscellaneous other processes
redintegrationa1550
decoction1555
fixion1555
cementation1592
fumigation1617
spiritualization1651
retortion1657
rocking1673
phosphorizationa1687
concentration1689
humectation1706
animalization1733
hyperoxygenation1793
bituminization1804
assimilation1830
metamorphosis1843
transformation1857
retorting1858
tincturation1860
regeneration1869
nitrification1880
diagenesis1886
aluminothermy1900
aluminothermics1902
photoprocess1910
olation1931
mass transfer1937
reconcentration1956
tritiation1961
borohydride reduction1965
1857 W. A. Miller Elements Chem. (1862) III. 67 In order to effect these transformations it is necessary to displace the hydrogen of the acid.
e. Change of energy from one form into another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > energy or power of doing work > [noun] > change from one to another
transformation1877
1877 W. Garnett in Encycl. Brit. VII. 583/2 The subject of which natural philosophy treats is the transformation of energy, which in all its phases takes place in accordance with two great principles known respectively as the principles of the conservation and the dissipation of energy.
1878 W. Garnett in Encycl. Brit. VIII. 207/2 If subsequently we allow an equal amount of energy to undergo various intermediate transformations, but to be finally reduced to heat.
1902 Encycl. Brit. XXIX. 158 In succeeding years [from 1840] he [Joule] published a series of valuable researches on the agency of electricity in transformations of energy.
f. Change of an electric current into one of different potential, or different type, or both, as by a transformer (transformer n. 2). Also attributive.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical engineering > transformer > [noun] > activity of
transformation1884
1884 Telegr. Jrnl. & Electr. Rev. 26 July 64 Conditions for arranging a transformation coil, as regards its yield.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 173/1 Transformers may be distinguished..in accordance with the type of transformation they effect.
g. Physics. Change of one element into another, whether artificially induced or by spontaneous decay. Cf. transmutation n. 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactivity > change of one element into another > [noun]
transmutation1897
transformation1902
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > radioactive isotope > radioactive nuclide > [noun] > change arising from decay
transformation1902
1902 Rutherford in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 4 395 These changes must be occurring within the atom, and the radioactive elements must be undergoing spontaneous transformation.
1926 R. W. Lawson tr. G. von Hevesy & F. A. Paneth Man. Radioactivity xxi. 150 Similar attempts to influence the velocity of transformation of uranium and radium D, by subjecting them to the action of radiation, have also led to a negative result.
1958 O. R. Frisch Nucl. Handbk. iv. 4 In each unit of time a certain definite fraction of the total number of the atoms present will disintegrate but there is nothing to indicate the moment at which a given atom will undergo the radioactive transformation.
1969 Times 12 Mar. 4/8 It is to be assumed that the uranium and thorium in the galaxy were created by the nuclear transformation within densely packed matter at high temperatures.
h. Molecular Biology. The genetic alteration of a bacterial cell by the introduction or absorption of extraneous DNA (see transform v. 1f).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > [noun] > genetic alteration of cell
transformation1928
the world > life > biology > laboratory analysis > processes > [noun] > genetic techniques
selection1837
runting1893
sex control1898
progeny test1910
insemination1923
progeny-testing1926
transformation1928
translation1955
hybridization1959
transcription1961
reverse transcription1970
1928 F. Griffith in Jrnl. Hygiene 27 154 Experiments with culture heated at temperatures higher than 60°C. have rarely been successful in causing transformation of type.
1960 New Biol. 31 72 The first clear demonstration of transformation was made in 1928 by Griffith, who discovered that an avirulent and normally harmless strain of pneumococcus was changed into a virulent strain when injected into mice together with some virulent pneumococci that had been thoroughly killed by heating.
1970 E. J. Ambrose & D. M. Easty Cell Biol. x. 346 Transformation is a very inefficient process but has proved useful for gene mapping in bacteria where a suitable transducing phage is not known.
1980 Sci. Amer. Feb. 36/2 In another process, known as transformation, DNA released by cell death or other natural processes simply enters a new cell from the environment by penetrating the cell wall and membrane.
i. Cytology. The modification of a eukaryotic (nucleated) cell so that it comes to possess some or all of the characteristics of a cancer cell.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > cellular processes > [noun] > transformation
cytomorphosis1901
hemixis1936
transformation1943
1943 Jrnl. Nat. Cancer Inst. 4 202/1 The cell transformations appeared after a definite latent interval of several weeks following initial exposure to the carcinogen.
1967 Nature 8 July 171/2 The concept of contact inhibition has attracted particular interest since the advent of tissue culture investigations on neoplastic transformation.
1982 Sci. Amer. Mar. 71/1 Transformation..is due to the action of a gene, which must be expressed continuously to maintain the cancerous state.
j. Linguistics. An operation by which one syntactic structure is converted into another by the application of specific rules; a rule converting deep structure to surface structure (see deep structure n. at deep adj. Compounds 2, surface n.); the process by which surface structures are generated.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > syntactic relations > [noun] > change of word order or position > specifically in transformational grammar
transformation1955
structural change1959
SC1964
1955 N. Chomsky Transformational Anal. (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Pennsylvania) . 27 A sentence X is related to a sentence Y if, under some transformation set up for the language, X is a transform of Y or Y is a transform of X.
1957 N. Chomsky Syntactic Struct. (1962) v. 44 Let us call each such rule a ‘grammatical transformation’.
1957 Z. S. Harris in Language 33 283 We can proceed to define transformation..based on two structures having the same set of individual co-occurrences. This relation yields unique analyses of certain structures and distinctions which could not be analyzed in ordinary linguistic terms.
1964 Word 20 429 Transformations..may be thought of as manipulations—reordering, combination, addition, deletion—performed on fully formed sentences.
1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Linguistics vi. 242 Transformation is a method of stating how the structures of many sentences in languages can be generated or explained formally as the result of specific transformations applied to certain basic sentence structures.
1967 D. G. Hays Introd. Computational Linguistics viii. 153 Such a transformation can break down the structure of one sentence and insert all or part of it at a specified place in the structure of the other.
1977 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 1976 21 156 The traditional assumption that transformations do not change meanings.
4. An artificial head of hair worn by women.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > beautification of the person > beautification of the hair > practice of wearing artificial hair > [noun] > artificial hair
chevelure1470
heartbreaker1654
wig1675
tête1756
wiggery1775
transformation1901
1901 Daily News 12 Jan. 6/7 Buying toupées, or even ‘transformations’, as those wigs are called which entirely cover the natural hair.
1903 Westm. Gaz. 6 Aug. 3/2 Hairdressers are known to make most of their returns by the producing of these transformations.
1906 Referee 9 Dec. 11/4 When he got to the exit door he discovered to his horror that he had dragged off the lady's ‘transformation’, and it was hanging to his sleeve-link.
Compounds
transformation card n. (also transformation playing card) a playing card on which the suit signs are incorporated into a design or picture.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > card game > card or cards > [noun] > card of specific design
squeezer1876
transformation card1931
1848 W. A. Chatto Facts Hist. Playing Cards iv. 260 In 1811 two different packs of caricature cards, imitated..from the picture-cards in Cotta's Almanack, appeared in England... On the wrapper of both packs the inscription is the same: ‘Metastasis. Transformation of Playing-cards.’]
1931 H. T. Morley Old & Curious Playing Cards 152 Transformation cards, 1828. A pack of 52 cards,..printed from wood blocks.
1960 H. Hayward Connoisseur's Handbk. Antique Collecting 286/2 Transformation playing cards, first issued in London 1808... Making transformation cards from ordinary packs became a fashionable pastime, pen and ink converting cards into designs of topical or personal association.
1966 S. Mann Collecting Playing Cards viii. 164 Transformation cards are a rather different case... Their aim is to ‘transform’ an ordinary pip card into a picture by means of incorporating the pips in their standard positions in a larger overall design.
transformation-dancer n. Theatre one who dances successively in several costumes and characters.
ΚΠ
1892 Daily News 29 Jan. 7/2 She was engaged generally upon the music hall stage... Her peculiar branch was transformation dancing... She was well known as a transformation dancer.
transformation-jewel n. a jewel which may be worn in several ways.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > jewellery > [noun] > piece or article of > that may be worn in several ways
transformation-jewel1892
1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 17 Mar. 1/3 French jewellers are devoting all their inventive genius to new designs for the setting of these transformation jewels.
Categories »
transformation product n. Chemistry a new compound formed by the decomposition or destructive distillation of a complex compound often existing in nature.
Derivatives
transforˈmationist n. (a) = transformist n. 2; (b) = transformationalist n. at transformational adj. Derivatives.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > moral philosophy > social ethics > [noun] > transformism and its adherents
transformista1879
transformism1885
transformationist1888
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > schools or theories of grammar > [noun] > transformational grammar > adherent of
transformationist1888
transformationalist1964
Chomskyan1975
1888 F. M. Müller Nat. Relig. (1889) vi. 143 We ought to be transformationists and no longer evolutionists.
1962 J. Sledd in F. W. Householder & S. Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 145 The transformationists..have little interest in pedagogic problems.
1965 Language 41 124 A Czech study on the structure of German sentences..is contrasted with a study on the same subject by an American transformationist.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1914; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.?a1475- fortuition
- fortuitism
- fortuitist
- fortuitists
- fortuitness
- fortuitous
- fortuitous concourse of atoms
- fortuitous event
- fortuitously
- fortuitousness
- fortuitousnesses
- fortuity
- fortunable
- fortunably
- fortunacy
- fortunary
- fortunate
- fortunate islands
- fortunateling
- fortunately
- fortunateness
- fortunatenesses
- fortunates
- fortunation
- fortune