Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or of the nature of a palimpsest; made into a palimpsest.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Our whole existence could be seen as a long progression of palimpsestic reality, where the old cultures, the old ways, are stripped away but continue to shine through in the ways we do things: our superstitions, our celebrations.

    Archive 2007-10-01 Heather McDougal 2007

  • Our whole existence could be seen as a long progression of palimpsestic reality, where the old cultures, the old ways, are stripped away but continue to shine through in the ways we do things: our superstitions, our celebrations.

    Palimpsests As Metaphor Heather McDougal 2007

  • It is the palimpsestic notion of America as a kind of beacon.

    am I an americanist? : Stephen Burt : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • Women from Jane Austen and Mary Shelley to Emily Bronte and Emily Dickinson produced literary works that are in some sense palimpsestic, works whose surface designs conceal or obscure deeper, less accessible (and less socially acceptable) levels of meaning.

    My Name Was Martha: A Renaissance Woman's Autobiographical Poem 1993

  • It was certainly honorable to this reverend body in our own day that they numbered Mai and Mezzofante among their brethren; but in Rome the story ran that neither the palimpsestic labors of the one nor the fifty languages of the other would have won him the well-earned promotion, if the Pope's favorite servant had not set his heart upon making his children's tutor assistant-librarian of the Vatican.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 Various

  • Celebrity tattoos can be meaningful (Angelina Jolie's veritable UNESCO of cultural runes), amusing (Johnny Depp's palimpsestic "Wino Forever"), and unfortunate (everything Steve-O has ever done to himself), but rarely are they truly mysterious.

    EW.com: Today's Latest Headlines 2010

  • Over the last three days of the week, we took field trips to sites and museums that highlight the "palimpsestic nature" of the city.

    TravelPod.com Recent Updates 2009

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