Sea change (idiom)
Sea-change or seachange, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, means "a change wrought by the sea."[1] The term originally appears in William Shakespeare's The Tempest in a song sung by a supernatural spirit, Ariel, to Ferdinand, a prince of Naples, after Ferdinand's father's apparent death by drowning:
"Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made,
Hark! now I hear them, ding-dong, bell."
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change,
into something rich and strange,
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell,
Ding-dong.
The term sea-change is therefore often used to mean a metamorphosis or alteration.[2][3] For example, a literary character may transform over time into a better person after undergoing various trials or tragedies (e.g. "There is a sea change in Scrooge's personality towards the end of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.") As with the term Potemkin village, sea-change has also been used in business culture. In the United States, sea-change is often used as a corporate buzzword. In this context, it need not refer to a substantial or significant transformation, but can indicate a far less impressive change.[4]
References
- ↑ Sea-change.OED Online, December 2013.
- ↑ The Absent Shakespeare - Mark Jay Mirsky. p. 132.
- ↑ Complexity, Organizations and Change - Elizabeth McMillan. pp. 61-62.
- ↑ Buzzword of the Week: Sea Change. Daily Finance, December 9, 2010
Further reading
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Look up sea change or seachange in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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- Rich and Strange: Gender, History, Modernism. pp. 3- (preview page 4 not shown in preview)
- The Absent Shakespeare. pp. 131–132.
- Data Protection: Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance. p. xx.
- Complexity, Management and the Dynamics of Change: Challenges for Practice. p. 78.
- The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups. p. 509.
- Shakespeare Survey, Volume 24. p. 106.
