[as if ad. L. *ēmersiōnem, n. of action f. ēmergĕ-re to EMERGE.]
1. The appearing (of what has been submerged) above the surface of the water. (Formerly sometimes in a narrower sense: see quot. 1731.)
1667. Phil. Trans., II. 440. The Immersion and Emersion of the Globe.
a. 1684. Knatchbull, Annot. Texts N. Test. (1693), 207 (T.). The act of immersion in the water,… and the emersion again out of the same.
1731. Bailey, vol. II. Emersion, the rising of any solid above the surface of a fluid specifically lighter than itself, into which it had been violently immersed.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 26. The creation of fish was … subsequent to the emersion of the tracts just mentioned.
1875. Wonders Phys. World, I. iii. 119 The continent of North America, the emersion of which is comparatively recent.
fig. 1760. Foote, Minor, II. (1781), 58. Her emersion from the mercantile ruin.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 350. This emersion then of human nature from the floods of corruption.
2. The action of coming out or issuing (from concealment or confinement). Somewhat rare.
1763. C. Johnston, Reverie, II. 42. My emersion from … solitude in which I had buried myself.
1835. Kirby, Hab. & Inst. Anim., I. ii. 63. The animal’s emersion from its hiding place.
b. Astron. The reappearance of the sun or moon from shadow after eclipse, or of a star or planet after occultation.
1633. H. Gellibrand, in T. James, Voy., R b. The exact time of the Moones Emersion.
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xl. (1787), 116. We were … watching the emersion of a satellite of Jupiter.
1833. Sir J. Herschel, Astron., ix. 294. An eclipse … in which only the immersion, or only the emersion, is seen.
† 3. A coming into notice; an issuing into being. Obs.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 145. This Hylozoick Atheism hath been very obscure ever since its first Emersion.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 218. The emersion of the New Jerusalem into Being.
