Sea Change

A large change in perspective or circumstances. A gradual transformation.

It comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest where he discusses a death by drowning:

Both doth suffer a sea change
into something rich and strange

Why I Looked It Up

I was sitting in line for a car wash thinking about a personal situation and how life goes through “seasons” and sometimes a “seasonal change.” The tripped over that phrase, and suddenly wondered if it was a shorter form of “sea change” – a phrase I had heard before.

Alas, it was not. I did not know the origin of “sea change” prior to this, but it has nothing to do with seasons, figurative or otherwise.