2. To call away; to remove from one tribunal to another. [R.] "The cause was evoked to Rome." Hume.
Evolatic
(Ev`o*lat"ic Ev`o*lat"ic*al) a. [L. evolare to fly away; e out + volare to fly.] Apt to fly away.
[Obs. or R.] Blount.
Evolation
(Ev`o*la"tion) n. [L. evolatio.] A flying out or up. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.
Evolute
(Ev"o*lute) n. [L. evolutus unrolled, p. p. of evolvere. See Evolve.] (Geom.) A curve from
which another curve, called the involute or evolvent, is described by the end of a thread gradually wound
upon the former, or unwound from it. See Involute. It is the locus of the centers of all the circles which
are osculatory to the given curve or evolvent.
Any curve may be an evolute, the term being applied to it only in its relation to the involute.
Evolutility
(Ev`o*lu*til"i*ty) n. [See Evolution.] (Biol.) The faculty possessed by all substances capable
of self-nourishment of manifesting the nutritive acts by changes of form, of volume, or of structure. Syd.
Soc. Lex.
Evolution
(Ev`o*lu"tion) n. [L. evolutio an unrolling: cf. F. évolution evolution. See Evolve.]
1. The act of unfolding or unrolling; hence, in the process of growth; development; as, the evolution of a
flower from a bud, or an animal from the egg.
2. A series of things unrolled or unfolded. "The whole evolution of ages." Dr. H. More.
3. (Geom.) The formation of an involute by unwrapping a thread from a curve as an evolute. Hutton.
4. (Arith. & Alg.) The extraction of roots; — the reverse of involution.
5. (Mil. & Naval) A prescribed movement of a body of troops, or a vessel or fleet; any movement designed
to effect a new arrangement or disposition; a maneuver.
Those evolutions are best which can be executed with the greatest celerity, compatible with regularity.
Campbell. 6. (Biol.) (a) A general name for the history of the steps by which any living organism has acquired
the morphological and physiological characters which distinguish it; a gradual unfolding of successive
phases of growth or development. (b) That theory of generation which supposes the germ to preëxist in
the parent, and its parts to be developed, but not actually formed, by the procreative act; — opposed to
epigenesis.
7. (Metaph.) That series of changes under natural law which involves continuous progress from the
homogeneous to the heterogeneous in structure, and from the single and simple to the diverse and
manifold in quality or function. The pocess is by some limited to organic beings; by others it is applied
to the inorganic and the psychical. It is also applied to explain the existence and growth of institutions,
manners, language, civilization, and every product of human activity. The agencies and laws of the process
are variously explained by different philosophers.
Evolution is to me series with development.
Gladstone. Evolutional
(Ev`o*lu"tion*al) a. Relating to evolution. "Evolutional changes." H. Spenser.
Evolutionary
(Ev`o*lu"tion*a*ry) a. Relating to evolution; as, evolutionary discussions.
Evolutionism
(Ev`o*lu"tion*ism) n. The theory of, or belief in, evolution. See Evolution, 6 and 7.
