Dear Geist, Where did the term sea change come from? In the three dictionaries I checked, it's defined as a significant and/or unexpected change, some important transformation. How does the sea get into it? —Oksana C, Prince Rupert BC Dear Oksana, The term comes from Shakespeare's play The Tempest, written in about 1610. In it, Ferdinand's father's body, resting at the bottom of the sea, is found to have undergone dramatic changes. “Of his bones are coral made: / those are pearls that were his eyes,” sings Ariel. “Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange.” In other words, the sea has claimed the body and altered it in ways that are almost magical. Sometime in the late nineteenth century, the term began to mean any significant change caused by any old thing. It's easy to see why people would adapt sea change to other uses—any invocation of the sea reminds us of its beauty and mystery and power superior to ours. And language is a living, changing thing. But it's okay to be sad that we've lost the original, which is in a category of its own. —The Editors
