Literary notes about Obsolescence (AI summary)
In literature, "obsolescence" is often employed to capture the gradual fading away of not only tangible objects and technologies but also ideas, practices, and even entire cultural expressions. Authors use the term in a technical sense to denote depreciation or a functional decline, as seen in discussions of machinery, buildings, and economic concepts [1], [2], [3], while also drawing a more metaphorical comparison with the slow disappearance of language and customs [4], [5], [6]. Whether describing the deliberate shortening lifecycle of consumer goods [7] or the poetic decay of once-vibrant cultural phenomena [8], [9], the word serves as a versatile marker of impermanence and transition in both material and symbolic realms.
- A sinking fund to cover depreciation and obsolescence; ( e )
— from The Valuation of Public Service Corporation Property Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXXII, June, 1911, ASCE 1190 by Henry Earle Riggs - In the mid 1870’s Bollman saw his truss pass into obsolescence.
— from Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 240 Contributions From the Museum of History and Technology Papers 34-44 on Science and Technology by Museum of History and Technology (U.S.) - The original power equipment consisted of engine-driven direct-current generators, which have gradually been retired due to obsolescence.
— from Metropolitan Subway and Elevated SystemsBulletin 49 by General Electric Company - It was not Tahitian, it was not Marquesan; it formed no part of that ancient speech of the Paumotus, now passing swiftly into obsolescence.
— from The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 18 by Robert Louis Stevenson - Now, obsolescence of some words is always found in connexion with such convergent sound changes.
— from Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin by Otto Jespersen - The best evidence of the obsolescence of any word is that it should still be frequently heard in some proverb or phrase, but never out of it.
— from On English Homophones Society for Pure English, Tract 02 by Robert Bridges - Have you ever heard of planned obsolescence?"
— from Subversive by Mack Reynolds - I take it these spurs are only the outward and visible sign of an inward obsolescence.
— from War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - The pass which marked the entrance to the Field of Obsolescence was barely visible ten miles away just a little east of north.
— from The Runaway Asteroid by Michael D. Cooper
