Literary notes about Absorption (AI summary)
The word "absorption" in literature seamlessly bridges literal and figurative worlds. On one hand, it conveys a physical process—such as the uptake of substances in chemical reactions or the digestive system ([1], [2], [3])—while on the other, it evokes a state of intense mental or emotional immersion, where characters become wholly engrossed in thought, passion, or self-reflection ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, the term extends into broader social and historical narratives, illustrating the merging or assimilation of groups and ideas ([7], [8], [9]). This multiplicity of meaning enriches its use across different genres, imbuing both scientific and artistic texts with a dynamic quality that underscores the depth and range of human experience.
- In chemistry absorption is the taking up of a gas by a liquid, or by a porous solid.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - [1013] An exceptionally intimate contact is the one resulting from the absorption of food.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Experiments on the decomposition of light by the prism—by absorption.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - He read with complete absorption, and when he finished he looked at me.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey - But how seldom is the naïve—that complete absorption, in the beauty of appearance—attained!
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Selden was in the state of impassioned self-absorption that the first surrender to love produces.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - And thus it is that we may sometimes approve the rise of a new state and sometimes the absorption of an old.”
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant - North America is already cared for, as the gradual extinction of the Mexican and absorption of the Canadians they consider certain.
— from Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries During 1866-7 by Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir - It was a process first of assimilation and then of absorption.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
