Esemplastic is an adjective which refers to the ability to mould diverse elements or concepts into a unified whole. The word was first used in 1817 by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria; Coleridge coined the word, apparently after the German word Ineinsbildung, "forming into one", but his neologism was formed from Greek roots: es, "into", en, "one", and plastic, as in malleable.

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Es`em*plas"tic (?), a. [Gr. into, to + one + molded, formed. See Plastic.]

Shaped into one; tending to, or formative into, unity.

Coleridge.

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© Webster 1913.