[ad. L. ēvolūtiōn-em (recorded in the sense ‘unrolling of a book’), n. of action f. ēvolvĕre: see EVOLVE. Cf. Fr. évolution.]
I. The process of unrolling, opening out, or disengaging from an envelope.
1. The opening out or unfolding of what is wrapped up (e.g., a roll, a bud, etc.); fig. the spreading out before the mental vision (of a series of objects); the appearance in orderly succession of a long train of events. Also concr. ‘the series of things unfolded or unrolled’ (J.).
1647. H. More, Poems, 150. Evolution Of outward forms spread in the worlds vast spright. Ibid. (1667), Div. Dial., i. § 15. The whole evolution of … ages, from everlasting to everlasting, is … represented to God at once.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 878. The Periods of Divine Providence, here in this World, are commonly Longer, and the Evolutions thereof Slower.
1743. Young, Nt. Th., IV. 22/510. Beyond long Ages, yet roll’d up in Shades … What Evolutions of surprizing Fate? Ibid. (1762), Resignation, II. xxxvi. Flowers … When ev’ning damps and shades descend, Their evolutions close.
1759. Johnson, Idler, No. 70, ¶ 11. He whose task is to reap and thresh will not be contented without examining the evolution of the seed.
1843. G. S. Faber, Sacred Cal. Prophecy (1844), I. p. xv. The evolution of time has served only to confirm me in … the honest persuasion, that [etc.].
2. Emergence or protrusion from the folds of an envelope. Frequent in Biol.
1762. Hudson, in Phil. Trans., LII. 500. Our author asserts, That every Fungus is contained in an entire and perfect state … in the egg, or, as it is called, the seed, and wants nothing but evolution, in order to imbibe the necessary juices.
1800. Med. Jrnl., III. 5. I determined to leave Nature undisturbed, to effect the evolution of the child.
1817. T. Say, Hessian Fly, Entom. Wks. 1859, II. 7. The specious circumstance of its evolution from the pupa itself of the destroying larva.
1887. Gray’s Anat. (ed. Pike), 85. The first appearance of the eye consists in the protrusion or evolution from the medullary wall of the … interbrain of a vesicle.
3. The process of evolving, disengaging, or giving off (gas, heat, light, sound, etc.); an instance of this process.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 289. A powerful evolution of the muriatic acid is painful and dangerous.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 278. Two dissimilar metals are not essential to the evolution of galvanism.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 138. The evolution of musical sounds during the cooling of heated metals.
1875. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. II. xxxii. 214. There is a constant evolution of heat and light.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 82. Decomposed by the acid with the evolution of carbonic acid gas.
4. Math. a. Geom. The unfolding or opening out of a curve: † (a.) the straightening it out, through all intermediate degrees of curvature, till it becomes a straight line; (b.) the production from it of an involute, such as would be traced by the end of a stretched flexible thread unwound from the outside of the curve.
1700. Phil. Trans., XXII. 445. By the Equable Evolution of a Circle, I mean such a gradual approach of its Periferie to Rectitude, as that all its parts do together and equally evolve or unbend.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Evolution, in geometry, the unfolding, or opening of a curve, and making it describe an evolvent.
1828. Hutton, Course Math., III. 352. To determine the nature of the curve by whose evolution the common parabola AB is described.
b. Arith. and Alg. The extraction of any root from any given power; the reverse of involution.
1706. in Phillips (ed. Kersey).
1734. Builder’s Dict., Evolution, The Extraction of Roots out of Powers.
1806. Hutton, Course Math. (1811), I. 292. Evolution is … the method of finding the square root, cube root, &c., of any given quantity.
1859. Barn. Smith, Arith. & Algebra (ed. 6), 262. Evolution is the inverse of Involution; being the method of finding any root of a given quantity.
5. The process of evolving, developing, or working out in detail, what is implicitly or potentially contained in an idea or principle; the development of a design, argument, etc.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., III. ii. 259. It must have potentially at least the whole Systeme of Humane Nature, or at least that Ideal Principle … thereof, in the evolution whereof the complement and formation of the Humane Nature must consist.
1768. Johnson, Pref. to Shaks., Wks. IX. 247. His plays … in the successive evolutions of the design, sometimes produce seriousness and sorrow, and sometimes levity and laughter.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. p. xv.–xvi. They [ancient names] may be again resolved by an easy, and fair evolution.
1820. Coleridge, Let. C. A. Tulk (in Sotheby’s Catal. May 1890). I had arrived at this conclusion by necessary evolution from the First Principle of my Philosophy.
1870. R. W. Dale, Week-day Serm., iv. 83. Some slip in the evolution of an argument.
1878. Simpson, Sch. Shaks., I. 140. A chorus is introduced to make up for the want of dramatic evolution.
b. concr. The result of this process.
1820. Coleridge, Let. C. A. Tulk (in Sotheby’s Catal. May 1800). The sensible world is but the evolution of the Truth, Love, and Life, or their opposites, in Man.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (ed. 4), I. 22. The philosophers who believe themselves organs of the world-soul, and their systems an evolution of the Deity.
1862. F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 55, note. In the Sánkhya, happiness, misery, will, and activity … are evolutions from … the internal organ.
6. Biol. a. Of animal and vegetable organisms or their parts: The process of developing from a rudimentary to a mature or complete state.
1670. Phil. Trans., V. 2078. By the word Change [in Insects] is nothing else to be understood but a gradual and natural Evolution and Growth of the parts.
1745. Needham, Microsc. Disc., Introd. 1. Nature … ever exerting its Fecundity in a successive Evolution of organised Bodies.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. 8, note. The gradual evolution of the young animal or plant from its egg or seed.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 588. A series of experiments on the evolution of the Chick. Ibid. (1805), XIV. 336. The formation and evolution of this part of the brain.
1839. Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. 201. Masses or eggs, in different stages of their evolution, are met with in the same nest.
b. Theory of Evolution: the hypothesis (first propounded under that name by Bonnet 1762) that the embryo or germ, instead of being brought into existence by the process of fecundation, is a development or expansion of a pre-existing form, which contains the rudiments of all the parts of the future organism. Also called ‘the theory of Preformation’; the latter name is now preferred, to avoid confusion with the following sense.
1831. [see EPIGENESIS].
1878. Huxley, in Encycl. Brit., VIII. 745.
c. The origination of species of animals and plants, as conceived by those who attribute it to a process of development from earlier forms, and not to a process of ‘special creation.’ Often in phrases Doctrine, Theory of Evolution.
1832. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. 11. The testacea of the ocean existed first, until some of them by gradual evolution, were improved into those inhabiting the land.
1852. H. Spencer, Developement Hypoth., Ess. (1883), I. 381. Those who cavalierly reject the Theory of Evolution, as not adequately supported by facts, seem quite to forget that their own theory is supported by no facts at all.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., vii. (1873), 201. At the present day almost all naturalists admit evolution under some form.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 185. The diversity of species has arisen by the evolution of one species out of another.
1881. Sir J. Hooker, in Nature, No. 619. 446. The doctrine of the orderly evolution of species under known laws.
7. The development or growth, according to its inherent tendencies, of anything that may be compared to a living organism (e.g., of a political constitution, science, language, etc.); sometimes contrasted with revolution. Also, the rise or origination of anything by natural development, as distinguished from its production by a specific act; ‘growing’ as opposed to ‘being made.’
1807. Knox & Jebb, Corr., I. 367. Its [our British constitution’s] tardy evolution bespeaks something fitter to endure.
1833. Chalmers, Const. Man (1835), II. vii. 39. When commerce is left to its own spontaneous evolutions.
1837. Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar (1844), 138. Our constitutional form of government has been produced by evolution.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xvii. (1862), II. 431. The same great evolution of Scythian power.
1873. H. Spencer, Study Sociol., v. 98. Psychology … deals with the evolution of the faculties … by what processes … ideas grow from concrete to abstract and from simple to complex.
8. The formation of the heavenly bodies according to the received theory that supposes it to have taken place by the concentration and consolidation of cosmic matter.
1850. Nichol, Archit. Heav., Pt. III. (title), Psyche, or Evolution. Ibid., 239 (heading of page) Universal Evolution. Ibid. (1851), (ed. 9), 289. As on Earth, there is [sic] also—ruling these high Heavens—vast processes of evolution.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geog., i. 2. The idea of the evolution of planets is due to the great astronomer and mathematician, Laplace.
9. In recent philosophical speculation used in a more comprehensive sense, of which the senses 6 a, 6 c, 7, 8 are regarded as special applications.
According to Herbert Spencer, whose views have greatly influenced not only the technical but also the popular use of the word, all the changes in the universe, whether material or psychical, are phenomena either of Evolution or of the reverse process of Dissolution; his definition of the former is quoted below.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xvii. § 145 (1875), 396. The formula finally stands thus:—Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation.
1878. J. Sully, in Encycl. Brit., VIII. 765. Mental evolution is a progressive composition of units of feeling in more and more complex forms. Ibid. Mr Spencer’s elaboration of the subject of social evolution has not been carried far enough.
a. 1881. A. Barratt, Phys. Metempiric (1883), 32. The laws of Evolution apply to both universes,… a universe of material forces, and a universe of conscious states.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., II. i. 144. Evolution is advance from the simple to the complex.
II. A tactical movement (and derived senses).
10. Mil. and Naut. The unfolding or opening out of a body of troops or squadron of ships; hence gen. any movement or change of position, such as counter-marching, wheeling, etc., required in the due disposition of a force, whether for review, or for active operations. Also fig.
1622. F. Markham, Bk. War, IV. viii. 151. But if it be to performe any Euolution or alteration of figure…, then he shall see that they obserue at least sixe foote distance … betweene one horseman and another.
[1696. P. Hoste (title), L’Art des Armées Navales, ou Traité des Evolutions Navales].
1704. Cocker, App. Terms of War, Evolutions, when a Body of Men change their form … This is done by doubling of Ranks or Files, Counter-marches, or Wheelings.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., By naval evolutions he [Hoste] means, the motions made by a fleet, squadron, or naval armament, in order to put themselves into a proper disposition for attacking the enemy, or defending themselves with the most advantage.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 90. This countermarch of each division is an evolution of great utility.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xv. 307. The Persian ships were turned by the wind and the waves, their evolutions were thwarted.
1853. Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl., s.v., That evolution is best which, with a given number of men, may be executed in the least space.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 253. The surrounding country was level and suitable to the evolutions of cavalry.
fig. 1771. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 296. That versatility, those sudden evolutions … have something derogated from the credit of all public professions.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit. (1867), 580. Jonson’s intense observation was microscopical when turned to the minute evolutions of society.
1847. Helps, Friends in C. (1873), I. vii. 90. Evolutions of patience and temper are performed at the fireside.
11. transf. A wheeling about; a movement in dancing, gymnastics, etc. Also, one of the regulated and recurring movements of a portion of a machine.
a. 1691. Boyle, Fluidity & Firmness, II. Wks. 1725, I. 331 (J.). This spontaneous coagulation [of the little saline bodies] … seem’d to be preceded by numerous evolutions.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 79/1. They move in an agreeable manner, performing certain involutions and evolutions in a quick measure.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 41. Clouds … of a dark brown colour, floating in varied evolutions.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 73. The various evolutions and positions to which every revolution of the wheel subjects each paddle.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, II. 214. The short evolution which the bar has to traverse, not being more than one fourth of a circle.
1837. New Monthly Mag., LI. 471. A perfect artiste of the ballet … going through her admirable evolutions.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. xi. 175. Haley … made him … perform various evolutions to show his muscles.
† b. A winding about, an intricate form. Obs.
1763. Johnson, 5 July, in Boswell. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings … that the wonderful immensity of London consists.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., I. 270. Roots … and sprays are often so fantastic in their evolutions as to betray a remote resemblance [to a human fabric].
III. 12. In etymological sense: The action of rolling (anything) out on a spindle. rare.
1880. R. Owen, Sanctorale Cathol., 271, note. From the horrible manner of his death by the evolution of his intestines, Italians regard him [St. Elmo] as their advocate against spasmodic pains.
