Both Uses of
apparition
in
The Scarlet Letter
- There used to be a swarm of these small apparitions in holiday time, and we called them children of the Lord of Misrule.†
p. 101.7 *apparitions = ghostlike figures or their appearances
- It would have been impossible to guess that this bright and sunny apparition owed its existence to the shape of gloomy gray; or that a fancy, at once so gorgeous and so delicate as must have been requisite to contrive the child's apparel, was the same that had achieved a task perhaps more difficult, in imparting so distinct a peculiarity to Hester's simple robe.†
p. 212.7apparition = a ghostlike figure or its appearance
Definitions:
-
(1)
(apparition as in: a headless apparition) a ghostlike figure or its appearance
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, apparition can refer to any strange, other-worldly, thing or its appearance. Even more rarely, apparition can by a synonym for appearance. The Harry Potter series uses the word both ways.