di ex machinis

English

Noun

di ex machinis

1. (rare) plural of deus ex machina
   • 1842, Eton coll, The Eton school magazine, pages 126–127:

     With Æschylus the popular divinities, like upstart creations of a later creed, are mere Di ex machinis, obedient to the all-powerful will of Destiny, which he ever contrives to keep in view, and make us sensible of.

   • 1900, George Robert Parkin, Edward Thring, Headmaster of Uppingham School: Life, Diary and Letters, Macmillan & co., ltd, page 152:

     One thing certainly vexes me, the cool way these governing men with their positions above the working conflict come down as di ex machinis, quite unconscious of the intense interest these frog pattings have for the frogs and of their own ignorance of frog life  I see how impossible it is for a Government like ours to promote good except by stopping evil.

   • 1969: Harold H. Kolb, The Illusion of Life: American Realism as a Literary Form, page 107 (University Press of Virginia)

     They do not depend on external circumstances, implausible natural events, startling coincidences, and the other di ex machinis that stalk mechanically through much romantic fiction.

   • 1976: Art Byrne and Seán McMahon, Faces of the West, 1875–1925: A Record of Life in the West of Ireland, Photographic [and] Literary, page 33 (Appletree Press Ltd; →ISBN, 9780904651126); and reprinted in:
   • 1980, Brian Mercer Walker, Seán McMahon, Art Ó Broin, Faces of Ireland, 1875-1925: 1875-1925, Appletree Press, →ISBN, page 33, →ISBN:
   • 1984, Brian Mercer Walker, Seán McMahon, Art Ó Broin, Faces of Ireland, 1875–1925, Appletree Press, →ISBN, page 33, →ISBN:

     As one who did well in the States he tends to use them as the source of Di ex Machinis to resolve the problems of his Irish characters.