a. and sb. [a. L. ēmergent-em: see EMERGENCE.] A. adj.
1. Rising out of a surrounding medium, e.g., water.
1627. May, Lucan, IV. 141 (1631), F iij. Emergent hills t’appeare began.
1682. Weekly Mem. Ingen., 355. One Part is emergent above the Water of it own accord.
a. 1774. Ferguson, Month of April. Brittania … Floating emergent on the frigid zone.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., II. vi. The great plain, broken by an emergent rock or clump of trees.
b. fig. with direct reference to lit. sense.
1636. B. Jonson, Discov. (1692), 693. The man that is once hated, both his good and his evil deeds oppress him. He is not easily emergent.
1647. May, Hist. Parl., III. vi. 102. Parliament was … so … sunke … that nothing but an extraordinary providence could make it again emergent.
1763. Shenstone, Elegies, V. 27. Hope, still emergent, still contemns the wave.
a. 1797. H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. II., I. 376. The emergent humour of his people.
2. That is in process of issuing forth.
1640. Shirley, Opportunity, Ded. This poem … emergent from the press.
1728. Thomson, Spring, 263. This … emergent from the gloomy wood, The glaring lion saw.
1838. J. Struthers, Poetic Tales, 38. The sun emergent smiled.
b. spec. in Astron. (see quot.); in Optics said of a ray of light after passing through a refracting medium; so also of a ray of heat.
1676. Newton, in Phil. Trans., XI. 558. The incident refractions were … equal to the emergent.
1721. Bailey, s.v., When a Star is getting out of the Sun Beams, and ready to become visible, it is said to be emergent.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, I. 246. The emergent rays will be collected to a focus.
1863. Tyndall, Heat, ix. (1870), 287. Heat emergent from these respective plates.
3. fig. That is in process of rising into notice.
1654. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I. (1655), 8. The self same spirit of contest … was emergent long before that marriage.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. VI. vi. Either emergent or else emerged and full-blown.
1851. J. H. Newman, Cath. in Eng., 189. There are emergent parties in this country.
4. fig. That arises from or out of something prior; consequent, derivative.
c. 1619. R. Jones, Serm. Resur., in Phenix, II. 488. Declining all emergent controversys.
1650. Venner, Via Recta, Advt. 370. From whose [blood] losse or want so great hurts are emergent.
1692. South, 12 Serm., 384 (J.). A necessity emergent from, and inherent in the things themselves.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., xiii. § 689 (1858). The changes of excentricity emergent … from the action of the normal force.
5. Casually or unexpectedly arising; not specially provided for. arch.
1593. Bilson, Govt. Christ’s Ch., 375. To amend all matters emergent.
1628. Digby, Voy. Medit. (1868), 3. That the Admirall may giue directions vpon emergent occasions.
1653. H. Cogan, Diod. Sic., 238. It is their custome after meate to fall into some emergent discourse.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 282. Allowances of Money paid to Persons for emergent Services.
1845–6. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. I. ii. 33. Occasional documents called forth by emergent needs.
¶ Used for ‘urgent,’ ‘pressing.’
1706. De Foe, Jure Div., Pref. 1. To perswade their Princes to burst them in their most emergent Occasions.
1717. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. xlvii. 45. The most emergent necessity.
1878. Macm. Mag., Jan., 254/1. Certain petty and emergent repairs.
1881. Spectator, 19 Feb., 245/2. The provocation was of the most emergent kind.
1882. Sir R. Temple, Men & Events, viii. 182–3. If a matter was politically emergent … he cast away his over-caution.
6. Required for emergencies.
1800. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., I. 65. I have this day sent a supply of emergent ammunition.
† 7. Emergent year: transl. of med.L. annus emergens. Obs.
The term was used by Gervase of Tilbury, who says that the Jews have three modes of reckoning their years: viz., annum usualem, which they employ in conformity with the practice of their Christian neighbors, beginning on 1 Jan.; annum legitimum, which begins in April; and annum emergentem, which is reckoned from their departure from Egypt. In this passage emergens has its usual med.L. sense ‘arising out of a particular circumstance’ (cf. 4, 5); but after the publication of Gervase in Leibnitz Script. Rer. Brunsv. (1707–10) the phrase annus emergens was taken to mean ‘the initial year of an era’ (a misconception to which the sentence, apart from its context, easily lends itself). Hence the modern equivalents of the L. phrase, with this incorrect explanation, found their way into 18th-c. dictionaries of Fr., Sp. and Eng.; but we have failed to discover any evidence that they actually came into use in those langs. A passage from the same ultimate source as that in Gervase occurs in Higden (see quot. 1450).
c. 1450. trans. Higden’s Polychron. (Harl. MS. 2261), I. 37. Also there is a yere emergente as anendes theyme begynnengs from May when thei wente from Egipte.
1736. Bailey, Emergent year [with erroneous explanation as above]. Hence in mod. Dicts.
B. sb. † 1. An outcome, incidental result. Obs.
1523. State Lett., in Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 89. In this cause of Matrimony with all the emergents and dependencies upon the same.
1656[?]. Bramhall, Replic., vi. 235. The consideration of one or two circumstances or emergents.
† 2. An unforeseen occurrence, a contingency not specially provided for; = EMERGENCY 3 b. Obs.
1620. N. Brent, trans. Sarpi’s Hist. Counc. Trent, 658. To be able to giue a rule for all emergents, as the times doe require.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 47. Maters falling out, new incidents and emergents.
a. 1714. Burnet, Own Time, II. 74. By an unlooked for emergent, the session was broke.
1720. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 491. My behaviour in this emergent.
3. Science. An effect produced by a combination of several causes, but not capable of being regarded as the sum of their individual effects. Opposed to resultant.
1874. Lewes, Problems Life & Mind, I. 98.
