Re: Sea Change & etymological sources

Meredith Bruns (wumpb@TTACS.TTU.EDU)
Mon, 20 Nov 1995 16:49:57 -0600

"Sea change", I have always heard, means a transformation from one form
of being into another--and I'd never even heard that the line was from
"The Tempest"!
There's a book by a popular author (Lois Gould, I think) called "The Sea
Change"...and the woman changes into a male after a traumatic event.
Go figure.

Merry Bruns
The Center for Anthropology Communications
http://pegasus.acs.ttu.edu/~wurlr/anthro.html

On Mon, 20 Nov 1995, Dorothy J. Cattle wrote:

> Karl,
> You wanted to know exactly where in The Tempest the phrase "sea change"
> occurs. It is in Act I, Scene 2, #12:
>
> Full fathom five thy father lies;
> Of his bones are coral made;
> Those are pearls that were his eyes;
> Nothing of him that doth fade
> But doth suffer a sea-change
> Into something rich and strange.
>
> I have four-field training in anthro and don't claim any Shakespeare
> expertise. Others can interpret. Since I don't talk ot Bill Gates daily
> [nor ever to Newt], still others can comment on their usage of the phrase.
>
> Dorothy
>