Literary notes about Preclude (AI summary)
Literary authors employ "preclude" as a precise mechanism to indicate that one circumstance entirely rules out another. In narratives, it is used to show that certain conditions—whether concrete or abstract—render further possibilities impossible. For instance, the sheer volume of records is said to preclude extending a historical account past a set time [1], while an age disparity is presented as enough to preclude feelings of jealousy [2]. In other contexts, even enjoyable contrasts, such as one’s fondness for pickles not precluding a taste for sweets, highlight that seemingly opposing qualities need not be mutually exclusive [3]. Sometimes the term is applied in a philosophical or theoretical framework to suggest that inherent limits, whether in scope or in physical space, preclude alternative outcomes [4].
- The extracts from this journal have been so voluminous as to preclude bringing the record much farther than the end of 1914.
— from A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium by Hugh Gibson - Besides, the disparity of age between the duke and his wife seemed to preclude all thoughts of jealousy.
— from The Fourth Estate, vol. 2 by Armando Palacio Valdés - He had found Persis Dale unexpectedly interesting, but Annabel was unexpectedly pretty, and a liking for pickles does not preclude a taste for sweets.
— from Other People's Business: The Romantic Career of the Practical Miss Dale by Harriet L. (Harriet Lummis) Smith - For that this is possible, nay, that such a system is not of so great extent as to preclude the hope of its ever being completed, is evident.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
