gestalt
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also Gestalt
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Alternative forms
[edit] Etymology
Borrowing from German Gestalt (“shape, figure, form”). The German term can also apply to a geometric or graphical shape, but that is not the case when this word is used in English.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
gestalt (plural gestalts)
- A collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic entities that creates a unified concept, configuration or pattern which is greater than the sum of its parts (of a character, personality, or being)
-
- This biography is the first one to consider fully the writer's gestalt.
-
- shape, form
-
- Mary did not approve of the Eleanor gestalt. "I been to Woonsocket S.D., Eleanor McGovern's hometown," she said, "and nobody there? I mean nobody? dresses like that." — John L Hess and Karen Hess, "The Taste of America", Grossman, New York, 1977
- ... depending on the kinds of speech children hear directed to them, they may first learn unanalyzed "gestalts" (e.g., social expressions like "What's that?" uttered as a single unit) instead of learning single words that are then freely recombined ...— Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, "The Origins of Grammar", The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996
- So different were our appearances and approaches and general gestalts that we had something of an epic rivalry from '74 through '77. — David Foster Wallace, "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again", Boston: Little, Brown and Co., Edition: 1st Back Bay ed., 1998
-
