SYMBOLISM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Symbolism

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/sˈɪmbəlˌɪzəm/ Listen

Symbolism

noun

A system of symbols and symbolic representations.

The practice of investing things with symbolic meaning. Synonyms: symbolisation, symbolization.

An artistic movement in the late 19th century that tried to express abstract or mystical ideas through the symbolic use of images.

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Etymology of 'Symbolism'

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"Symbolism" Quotes from Famous Books

... Chick felt the full significance of symbolism. Whereas before it had been but an incident of adventure, now it was the symbol of mystic revelation. It was not only the motif for all other decoration upon the walls and minor elements of the temple; it was the emblem ...

— The Blind Spot • Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint

... notably in the cases of the large stones illustrated in the book, p. 75, as derived from combinations of ornaments commonly found on AEgean pottery, these motives being themselves connected with the symbolism of sun-worship. In the case of other markings, it was considered these were possibly derived from the decoration of certain objects of Scandinavian origin. In an article in L'Anthropologie, vol. xxiii, p. 29, dealing with the subject, M. J. Dechelette has put forward other views with regard ...

— The Bronze Age in Ireland • George Coffey

... Christmas observance at different times and in different lands are entertainingly shown by one trained in choosing and presenting the best to younger readers. The symbolism, good cheer, and sentiment of the grandest of holidays are shown as they appeal in similar fashion to those whose lives seem so widely diverse. The first chapter tells of the Yule-Tide of the Ancients, and the eight succeeding chapters deal respectively with the observance of Christmas and New Year's, ...

— Dorothy Dainty at Glenmore • Amy Brooks

... through that dust and the grammatical difficulties, the spectacle of the chorus chanting grotesquely, helping out protagonist and antagonist, masked and buskined, with the telling of incomprehensible parricides, of inexplicable incest, of gods faded beyond symbolism, of that Relentless Law we did not believe in for a moment, that no modern western European can believe in. We thought of the characters in the unconvincing wigs and costumes of our school performance. No Gilbert Murray had come as yet to touch ...

— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells

... were charmed away from the labour of epic invention, by the spell of the preacher. The task of representing characters—Waldere or Theodoric or Attila—was forgotten in the lyrical rapture of devotion, in effusion of pathos. The fascination of religious symbolism crept over minds that had hardly yet begun to see and understand things as they are; and in all their reading the "moral," "anagogical," and "tropological" significations ...

— Epic and Romance - Essays on Medieval Literature • W. P. Ker

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