Intergradation
* Integrade:v. def. To pass into another form by intervening grades.
1874 T. M. Trippe in Coues Birds N. IV. 115 Funco hyemalis, a. aikeni, intergrades with the following form though not as intimately as that does with the succeeding.
1884 Coues Key N. A. Birds 79 We treat as specific any form we do not know or believe to intergrade.
*Intergrade sb. def. S. H. Scudder 1889 Butterflies New England 160 The intergrades found throughout the belt forming the northern boundary of the typical alope and the southern boundary of the typical nephele seem to be far more easily explainable on the hy pothesis of hybridism.
1896 Brit. Birds I. 193 The intergrades between the olive and ruddy mottled types are the commonest.
*Intergradation: def. The action or fact of passing into or approximating to, each other by degrees.
1874 Trippe in Coues Birds N. IV . 145 The intergradation, however, is by no means as perfect as that between the two latter races.
2 Philol. The formation of a word from different from elements of different languages.
Question
Are the forms of the first five Roman numerals, as they pass into or approximate each other by degrees, equal in number to the intervening grades of those forms?
Consider, (and count)
I * II * III * IV * V
i ii iii iv
Answer
Regarding the first five Roman numerals in order, each form intergrades with the following form as intimately as that does with the suceeding form, but so far as the degrees occur respecting intergradation, they form fewer grades than the number of forms.
*Two forms which intergrade pass through or approximate each other by degrees, while leaving only one constant grade.
Common Definitions
Form A form is the visibe shape or configuration of something
Grade(vb.) to pass from one level, especially a shade of colour, into another
Degree the amount, level, or extent to which something happens or is present.
Having once had a form of blue paint on my palate, I added a degree of yellow paint; and, the blue and yellow paint on my palate, graded to a form of green paint, that was ready for the canvass.
* Intergrade:v. def. To pass into another form by intervening grades.
The blue form passed into a green form, by the intervening grade of yellow.
I knew by this that intergradation had occurred, because as I added yellow paint to the blue paint on my palate, by degrees the blue paint began to approximate green paint, by the intervening grade, that was entirely yellow. Yet, I couldn't admit to myself that there was no yellow in the final shade or form of green paint. I could only conclude, that what I saw was not green at all - it was, blue and yellow paint.
1884 Coues Key N. A. Birds 79 We treat as specific any form we do not know or believe to intergrade.
General Form: (We treat as general) any form we know or believe to intergrade.
With respect to palimpsests, it is useful to recall a word that is no longer in our common language. It is the obsolete verb 'intergrade' meaning, to pass into another form by intervening grades. This denotes that the noun 'grade' means, something that intervenes between two forms. Suppose, I was painting a subject on a canvass, calling for the colour green; and, on my palate I had only blue and yellow paint. Thus, on my palate is the form of blue and yellow paint. I begin to blend the two colours, and by intervening grades I pass from the original form on my palate and arrive at the new form of green paint that I have left. If this were a true palimpsest I would have erased the form of the blue and yellow paint on my palate, and replaced it entirely with green paint; and then I would have a form of blue and yellow paint, that has intergraded by the intervening grades of colours that had passed into the subsequent form of the green colour of paint I have left. With respect to the artist's true palate, however, comes a process of intergradation which is the action or fact of passing into, or approximating to, each other by degrees; therefore, with very few colours on the palate the artist can combine degrees of the two colours of blue and yellow and make the greatest variety of colours that would fill the palate. Even I might not use all the blue and yellow paint on my canvass to make the right green colour.