contain multitudes

Coined by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) in his poem “Song of Myself” published in Leaves of Grass (1855): see the quotation.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˌteɪn ˈmʌltɪtjuːdz/, /-t͡ʃ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /kənˌteɪn ˈmʌltəˌt(j)udz/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧tain mul‧ti‧tudes

contain multitudes (third-person singular simple present contains multitudes, present participle containing multitudes, simple past and past participle contained multitudes)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To have a complex and apparently paradoxical nature; to be inconsistent, especially in a way that is ultimately admirable or noble. [from 1855]
   • 1855 July 4, Walt Whitman, “[Song of Myself]”, in Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [James and Andrew Rome], →OCLC, page 55:

     Do I contradict myself? / Very well then … I contradict myself; / I am large … I contain multitudes.

   • 1970, Bernard Benstock, Sean O’Casey, Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, →OCLC:

     Mirror in My House is both a portrait of the artist ([Seán] O'Casey himself) and a portrait of an artist (a fictional John-Johnny-Sean Casside who contains multitudes), yet it is the unrelenting single vision of a particular personality with a fixed point of view.

   • 1996, Richard Taruskin, “Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny”, in Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works through Mavra (A Centennial Book), volume II, Berkeley; Los Angeles, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, part IV (On the Cusp of the New Classicism: A Heritage Redefined), page 1508:

     [Sergei] Diaghilev would show Europe that Russia was large and contained multitudes: multitudes of social classes and occupations, and multitudes of indigenous musical styles, not all of them "Asiatic" or peasant.

   • 2020 January 28, Lindsey Sullivan, “Watch Les Miz Tour Javert Preston Truman Boyd’s Luminous Performance of ‘Stars’”, in Broadway Buzz‎, archived from the original on 2023-06-07:

     In taking on this new role, Boyd had learned that Les Miz's "bad guy" contains multitudes—not unlike the stars he sings about.