Discover

Discover - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DISCOVER, v.t. [See Cover.]

1. Literally, to uncover; to remove a covering. Isa 22.

2. To lay open to the view; to disclose; to show; to make visible; to expose to view something before unseen or concealed.

Go, draw aside the curtains and discover the several caskets to this noble prince.

He discovereth deep things out of darkness. Job 12.

Law can discover sin, but not remove.

3. To reveal; to make known.

We will discover ourselves to them. 1 Sam 14.

Discover not a secret to another. Prov 25.

4. To espy; to have the first sight of; as, a man at mast-head discovered land.

When we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand. Acts 21.

5. To find out; to obtain the first knowledge of; to come to the knowledge of something sought or before unknown. Columbus discovered the variation of the magnetic needle. We often discover our mistakes, when too late to prevent their evil effects.

6. To detect; as, we discovered the artifice; the thief, finding himself discovered, attempted to escape.

Discover differs from invent. We discover what before existed, though to us unknown; we invent what did not before exist.

dis-kuv'-er: In modern usage the word "discover" signifies "to get first sight or knowledge of," "to ascertain," or "to explore." Such usage appears in 1Sa 22:6 of the discovery of David's hiding-place, where the Hebrew uses yadha`. In the King James Version the word "discover" often occurs in a sense now archaic or even obsolete. (Note in the cases cited below the Hebrew word is galah, except Jer 13:26 (chashaph, "to make bare") and Hab 3:13 (`arar, "to make naked").)

(1) "To exhibit," "uncover" (or "betray"), in which examples the English Revised Version also reads with the King James Version "discover"; the American Standard Revised Version "uncover" (Ex 20:26; Job 12:22; Isa 57:8 ("discovered thyself" the King James Version and the English Revised Version); Jer 13:26; La 2:14; Ho 7:1; Na 3:5).

(2) "To cause to be no longer a covering," "to lay bare" (2Sa 22:16 the King James Version).

(3) "To bring to light," "disclose" (1Sa 14:8,11 (the English Revised Version with the King James Version "discover")).

(4) "To unmask" or "reveal oneself" (Pr 18:2 the King James Version).

(5) "To take away the covering of" (Isa 22:8 the King James Version).

(6) "To lay bare" (Hab 3:13). In Ps 29:9, the King James Version reads: "The voice of the Lord .... discovereth the forests," where the Revised Version (British and American) reads, "strippeth the forests bare," i.e. "strippeth the forests of their leaves" (Perowne, The Psalms, I, 248); "strippeth bare the forests" (Briggs, Psalms, I, 251, 253).

In the New Testament (the King James Version), the word "discover" occurs as a translation of the Greek anaphanantes in Ac 21:3, and for katenooun in Ac 27:39, where the Revised Version (British and American) reads in the first instance "had come in sight of," and in the latter case "perceived."

W. N. Stearns