[ad. late L. ēmergentia, f. ēmergĕre to EMERGE.]
1. The rising (of a submerged body) out of the water.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 113. The waves … continue their denuding action during the emergence of these islands.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. 400. A well-wetted oar … on its first emergence from the water.
1875. Croll, Climate & T., xxiii. 368. The … emergence of the land during the glacial epoch.
2. The process of coming forth, issuing from concealment, obscurity or confinement. lit. and fig. (Cf. EMERGE v. 3, 4.)
1755. H. Brooke, Univ. Beauty, I. 10. From the deep thy [Venus’] bright emergence sprung.
1779. Johnson, Milton, L. P., 96. Physiological learning is of … rare emergence.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., I. 80. The emergence of an original poetic genius above the literary horizon.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 68/1. The infant is prepared for a more independent existence by the emergence of teeth.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xviii. (1856), 140. Its [the glacier’s] emergence from the valley.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, i. 1. The emergence from primitive barbarism of the great races.
1884. Sat. Rev., 22 Nov., 657/2. That emergence of the adversary’s point at the back might trouble a Neapolitan fencer.
b. Astron. and Optics. (Cf. EMERGE v. 3 b.)
1704. Newton, Opticks, 86 (J.). The whole Light at its very first emergence.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., ix. 294. Its [a satellite’s] emergence.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, iv. 108. As a thermic agent, the beam … is far more powerful than … after its emergence.
1881. Ld. Rayleigh, in Nature, XXV. 64. Giving the light a more … grazing emergence.
3. An unforeseen occurrence; a state of things unexpectedly arising, and demanding immediate attention.
Now replaced by EMERGENCY, which Ash in 1775 notes as ‘less usual.’
1649. Bp. Guthrie, Mem. (1702), 72. The Castle of Dunglass was blown up with Powder…. This Tragical Emergence [etc.].
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. lii. 406. To raise the nominal value of money may serve a particular emergence.
1823. Scott, Peveril, vi. The best I can think of in this emergence is [etc.].
1849. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 69. Nothing came out on the present emergence to alter our opinion.
¶ Pressing need, urgent want: ‘a sense not proper’ (J.).
1781. Cowper, Charity, 188. Not he but his emergence forced the door.
1846. Thackeray, Cornhill to Cairo, ix. 106. They call in their emergence upon countless saints and virgins.
4. Bot. A term applied by Sachs to those outgrowths on leaves or stems that arise from the sub-epidermic tissue and not merely from the epidermis.
1882. Vines, Sachs’s Text-bk. Botany (ed. 2), 161.
