Literary notes about Perceptible (AI summary)
In literature, perceptible is often employed to denote a barely noticeable change or quality that is nonetheless significant within its context. Its usage spans sensory descriptions—such as a subtle smile or the faint aroma of a carpeted room ([1], [2])—and extends to psychological or abstract shifts, for instance, the gradual reanimation of affections or a barely detectable influence on behavior ([3], [4]). Authors use the term to suggest that while the quality might be small—hardly perceptible in some cases ([5], [6])—its presence can be crucial in understanding characters' emotions or the environment, as seen in both scientific discussions of stimulus measurement and the nuanced observations of everyday life ([7], [8], [9]).
- Anna gave a just perceptible smile, but made no answer.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - The fresh milky odor is quite perceptible, also the perfume of hay from the barn.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - His affections seemed to reanimate towards them all, and his interest in their welfare again became perceptible.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - The tinge of constraint was beginning to be more distinctly perceptible under the friendly ease of his manner.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - We brought sixty scarcely perceptible donkeys in the freight cars, for we had much ground to go over.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain - The intention is no longer perceptible before the subject speaks.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Earlier inquiries made the perceptible increase of the stimulus to be about 1/3 of the latter.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - Indeed, that nominal significance, that allegorical intention, often injures the real significance, the perceptible truth.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer - Curiosity is but the tendency to make these conditions perceptible.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
