Prehension

//prɪˈhɛnʃən// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of grasping or gripping, especially with the hands. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    the act of gripping something firmly with the hands (or the tentacles) wordnet
  3. 3
    According to Alfred North Whitehead, a type of universally acting perception that is not limited to living, self-conscious beings, and which involves an interconnectedness of the observer and the observed. countable, uncountable

    "The addiction to punning was related to a reverence for the "Word." In a pun or a hieroglyphic figure, several lines come together in what Whitehead would call "a prehension"; in the comprehension of an event, that sympathetic resonance between the observor and the "thing" observed, there is a correspondence between the cosmic word of the gods (the Logos of St. John) and the inner words of the human mind, for each shares existence because it is a manifestation of divine laws and harmony."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin prehensio, prehensionis. Doublet of prison.

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