Literary notes about Immunity (AI summary)
The word "immunity" has been employed in literature with a remarkable range, shifting smoothly between literal and metaphorical uses. In earlier texts, such as Thucydides [1] and Jefferson [2], it denotes a literal protection—whether from epidemics or social maladies—while later works expand its meaning to include social and political contexts. For instance, sociologists discuss "biological and social immunity" as a concept that protects individuals or groups from contagions of both disease and behavior [3, 4], and writers like Aristophanes [5] and Homer [6] invoke it to emphasize vulnerability or the strategic exemption from negative consequences. Across these varied examples, from granting immunity for crimes [7] to challenging the idea of an absolute shield against fate’s blows [8], "immunity" emerges as a multifaceted term that encapsulates both a tangible safeguarding and an abstract state of exemption within different realms of human experience [9, 10, 11].
- Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - It did not much longer enjoy its immunity from epidemics.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Biological and Social Immunity: or Biological Immunity from Infection, Personal or Group Immunity against Social Contagion.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Biological and Social Immunity: or Biological Immunity from Infection, Personal or Group Immunity against Social Contagion.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Then nowhere from their inroads will be left to us immunity.
— from Lysistrata by Aristophanes - In the heroic times, it is not unfrequent for the king to receive presents to purchase freedom from his wrath, or immunity from his exactions.
— from The Iliad by Homer - I should gorge them with gold, I should grant them immunity for their crimes, and they would be grateful.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - Does fate strike so seldom that you can count on immunity from her blows?
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The fact is that the very extravagance of their doctrines and practices seems to ensure their immunity.
— from Secret societies and subversive movements by Nesta Helen Webster - Charlemagne, the second Alexander, could not contemplate with composure the immunity of the Moslem power on the other side of the Pyrenees.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole - Terms of surrender: Pardon, immunity to all!
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle