Literary notes about Properties (AI summary)
The term "properties" in literature is employed with remarkable versatility, referring both to measurable qualities and more abstract, inherent traits across varied contexts. In scientific and technical writing, for instance, it denotes specific physical or chemical characteristics—such as the antiscorbutic effects of dairy products [1] or the light‐bending behavior explored in Newton’s experiments [2, 3]. In works of medicine and natural history, it often describes the medicinal qualities of plants and substances, as seen in discussions on the laxative or therapeutic properties of herbal extracts [4, 5, 6]. At the same time, "properties" appears in literary and philosophical texts to characterize aspects of abstract entities, from the metaphysical qualities of space and time [7, 8] to the intrinsic attributes of objects and even social constructs like land ownership [9, 10]. Thus, whether in scientific treatises, legal discourses, or imaginative narratives, the word "properties" functions to encapsulate an element's defining features—both concrete and figurative—across multiple genres.
- Hart, E. B. , Steenbock, H. , and Smith, D. W. : Effect of Heat on the Antiscorbutic Properties of Some Milk Products, Jour. Biol.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - Now as all these things follow from the properties of Light by a mathematical way of reasoning, so the truth of them may be manifested by Experiments.
— from Opticks : by Isaac Newton - Have not the Rays of Light several sides, endued with several original Properties?
— from Opticks : by Isaac Newton - The pulp contains weak laxative properties and it is customary to administer it in solution with cream of tartar.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - The plant possesses no febrifuge properties.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - —The ripe fruit possesses antiscorbutic properties; the unripe fruit is used in treating dysentery.
— from The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines by T. H. Pardo de Tavera - Space is something so uniform and as to all particular properties so indeterminate, that we should certainly not seek a store of laws of nature in it.
— from Kant's Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics by Immanuel Kant - We know no other properties that make up the conception of substance phenomenal in space, and which we term matter.
— from The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant - The private properties of the Frank kings were immense, and produced enormous revenues.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob - Between it and Judge Driscoll’s house there was only a grassy yard, with a paling fence dividing the properties in the middle.
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
