What is the Meaning of: Metamorphosis | Concept and Definition of: Metamorphosis
The term metamorphosis derives from the latin metamorphōsis which, in turn, derives from a Greek word which means 'transformation. ' The most accurate sense of the word refers to the transformation of something in another.
Metamorphosis can be physical (concrete, real) or even symbolic (abstract). The passage from one State to another, such as from poverty to wealth and celibacy to marriage, can also be considered a metamorphosis. For example: «Susanne won the lottery and lived a true metamorphosis: now, she lives in a villa by the sea and a luxury car.
For Zoology, the metamorphosis is the transformation experienced by animals during their development. During this process, the animal can change shape and even sex. It is possible to distinguish single or incomplete metamorphosis (where the animal passes through several moults until it becomes an adult, without steps of inactivity, such as the grasshopper for example) and metamorphosis complex or complete (the caterpillars are quite different from adults and passes through stages where it remains including, immobile, she stops eating, such as butterflies).
Concerning geology, metamorphism is the transformation without change of State of the mineral or chemical composition of a rock, which takes place when it is subjected to a temperature or pressure different from those who are at its origin.
Metamorphosis (original name: "Die Verwandlung") is, moreover, a novel by Franz Kafka, published in 1915, which tells the story of a young man who mysteriously turns into a kind of giant cockroach.