Definitions

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  • noun Plural form of palimpsest.
  • verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of palimpsest.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • ''For we chose the noblest policy and we believed it necessary to free the Greeks by taking on the risks ourselves, just like before,'' Hyperides argues in a passage translated by Mr. Herrman and transcribed by Natalie Tchernetska of Riga, Latvia, a project scholar and specialist in Greek palimpsests, whom Mr. Herrman credits with first identifying the material.

    November 27, 2006 - Joan of Arc and Hyperides 2006

  • ''For we chose the noblest policy and we believed it necessary to free the Greeks by taking on the risks ourselves, just like before,'' Hyperides argues in a passage translated by Mr. Herrman and transcribed by Natalie Tchernetska of Riga, Latvia, a project scholar and specialist in Greek palimpsests, whom Mr. Herrman credits with first identifying the material.

    Archive 2006-11-01 2006

  • Reused writing materials, called palimpsests, are irradiated with ultraviolet light and reveal words that were erased thousands of years ago.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2010

  • A curious kind of document, which links the classical times with the middle ages, in respect to the we of parchment, is afforded by the "palimpsests," or manuscripts from which old writing had been erased in order to make way for new.

    Forty Centuries of Ink 1904

  • It's not simply their identity that the pair cloak so teasingly: the music they make is like a series of palimpsests, all woozy basslines, stuttering tempos and glacial washes of synths that feel like a hollowing out of several narrative strands in pop history.

    Hype Williams: One Nation – review 2011

  • Mr. Woodrell encourages readers to discern the blurred outlines of possible motives beneath official facts, and his stories often seem like palimpsests, with the deeds of generations overlapping.

    In Brief: Mystery 2011

  • While some of these are preserved, most now exist as fragments or palimpsests — played off against brick and partially stuccoed walls that appear stabilized but are assertive reminders that the place was once a ruin.

    What's Old Is Neues Again Tom L. Freudenheim 2010

  • While some of these are preserved, most now exist as fragments or palimpsests — played off against brick and partially stuccoed walls that appear stabilized but are assertive reminders that the place was once a ruin.

    What's Old Is Neues Again Tom L. Freudenheim 2010

  • While some of these are preserved, most now exist as fragments or palimpsests — played off against brick and partially stuccoed walls that appear stabilized but are assertive reminders that the place was once a ruin.

    What's Old Is Neues Again Tom L. Freudenheim 2010

  • In more theoretical discourse, palimpsests appear in relation to psychology, culture, and even mythology.

    Palimpsests As Metaphor Heather McDougal 2007

Comments

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  • Typically a document written on parchment recycled by erasing previous writing which is still "visible" in one form or another.

    July 25, 2009