Ephemeral  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 12:57, 16 October 2013; view current revision
←Older revision | Newer revision→
Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Ephemeral things (from Greek εφήμεροςephemeros, literally "lasting only one day") are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature (such as some flowers, insects, and diseases) , although it can describe a wide range of things.

Contents

Geographical examples

An ephemeral waterbody is a wetland, spring, stream, river, pond or lake that only exists for a short period following precipitation or snowmelt. They are not the same as intermittent or seasonal waterbodies, which exist for longer periods, but not all year round.

Examples of ephemeral streams are the Luni river in Rajasthan, India, Ugab River in Southern Africa, and a number of small ephemeral watercourses that drain Talak in northern Niger. Other notable ephemeral rivers include the Todd River and Sandover River in Central Australia as well as the Son River, Batha River and the Trabancos River.

Any endorheic basin, or closed basin, that contains a playa or dry lake at its drainage lowpoint can become an ephemeral lake. Examples include Lake Carnegie in Western Australia, Lake Cowal in New South Wales, Mystic Lake and Rogers Lake in California, and Sevier Lake in Utah. Even the driest and lowest place in North America, Death Valley (more specifically Badwater Basin), became flooded with a short-lived ephemeral lake in the spring of 2005.<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7182113/</ref>

There are also ephemeral islands such as Banua Wuhu and Home Reef. These islands appear when volcanic activity increases their height above sea level, but disappear over the course of several years due to wave erosion. Bassas da India, on the other hand, is a near-sea level island that appears only at low tide.

Biological examples

Main article{{#if:|s}}: Ephemeral plant{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, | and }}[[{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{3}}}|{{{3}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{4}}}|{{{4}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{5}}}|{{{5}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{6}}}|{{{6}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{7}}}|{{{7}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{8}}}|{{{8}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{9}}}|{{{9}}}]]}}{{#if:
|, and [[{{{10}}}|{{{10}}}]]}}{{#if: | (too many parameters in {{main}})}}

Many plants are adapted to an ephemeral lifestyle, in which they spend most of the year or longer as seeds before conditions are right for a brief period of growth and reproduction. The spring ephemeral plant mouse-ear cress is a well-known example.

Animals can be ephemeral, with brine shrimp and the mayfly being examples. The placenta is considered an ephemeral organ present during gestation and pregnancy.

Ephemeral artifacts

Main article{{#if:|s}}: Ephemera{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, | and }}[[{{{2}}}|{{{2}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{3}}}|{{{3}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{4}}}|{{{4}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{5}}}|{{{5}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{6}}}|{{{6}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{7}}}|{{{7}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{8}}}|{{{8}}}]]}}{{#if:
 |{{#if:|, |, and }}[[{{{9}}}|{{{9}}}]]}}{{#if:
|, and [[{{{10}}}|{{{10}}}]]}}{{#if: | (too many parameters in {{main}})}}

Ephemeral can also be used as an adjective to refer to a fast-deteriorating importance or temporary nature of an object to a person. Brands are notoriously ephemeral assets, magazine publishing was once much more ephemeral than it is today, as was television programming.

A number of art forms can be considered ephemeral because of their temporary nature. Early land art and all sand sculptures, ice sculptures and chalk drawings on footpaths are examples of ephemeral art. G. Augustine Lynas and Duthain Dealbh create ephemeral sculptures.

Other uses

Often happiness is described as being ephemeral, as one does not find it to be a permanent state, within the scope of human lives. There are always varying shades of happiness and disappointment.

In computer networking technology, an ephemeral port is a TCP, UDP or SCTP port which is dynamically assigned to a client application for a short period of time (the duration of time the application is running). This is in contrast to the "well known" ports which are typically statically assigned to a specific application or service.

Other uses also include:

services, information, ...) while requiring less input (effort, time, resources, ...)

Further reading


Etymology

From New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ἐφήμερος (ephēmeros), the more common form of ἐφημέριος (ephemerios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ἐπί (epi, “on”) + ἡμέρα (hēmera, “day”).

Synonyms

temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile

Antonyms

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Ephemeral" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Views
Personal tools
Metas
Navigation