Literary notes about Abstracted (AI summary)
The term "abstracted" is deployed in literature both to portray a character's mental state and to describe the process of extracting something from its context. In narrative contexts, it often depicts individuals who are lost in reverie or distracted from their immediate surroundings, as seen when Pickwick uncorks a bottle with a detached air [1] or when Sherlock Holmes's expression suggests a deep preoccupation [2]. At the same time, the word serves a technical function, describing the extraction of specific elements—whether data, traits, or materials—from a larger whole, as when information or even ore is isolated from its original context [3, 4]. This dual usage enriches literary language by imbuing both the tangible and the intangible with layers of meaning.
- During this short interchange of sentiments, Mr. Pickwick had, in an abstracted mood, uncorked the bottle.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes.
— from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle - When one ore is abstracted and purified, the residuum subsists in that primeval quarry in which it originally lay.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Terms and propositions record, fix, and convey what is abstracted.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
