Literary notes about Sediment (AI summary)
The term "sediment" in literature has been used in both literal and metaphorical senses, highlighting its versatility as a concept. In some texts, such as Ukers' discussion of coffee [1, 2] or Apicius' culinary directions [3], sediment refers to tangible deposits—whether the remnants of a brewed beverage or the compounds necessary for a recipe. In the realm of natural observation, Darwin and the Lewis and Clark journals [4, 5, 6, 7, 8] employ the word to describe the physical settling of particles in water bodies, emphasizing processes of accumulation and environmental change. On the other hand, authors like Nietzsche [9] and Santayana [10] use sediment metaphorically to denote the underlying residue of emotional, intellectual, or moral life—the husks of our internal experiences. Even playful uses appear in Ben Jonson’s work, where the term is morphed into puns contrasting with similar-sounding words [11, 12]. Thus, "sediment" operates on multiple levels, bridging the concrete with the abstract across literary genres.
- Those who allow the sediment to settle down, do not do so from contempt, for they afterwards collect it with the little finger and eat it carefully.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Identify soluble colors in the solution and insoluble pigments in the sediment.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - IF YOU INTEND TAKING THIS TO MOVE THE BOWELS THE SEDIMENT SALTS [3] OF HYDROGARUM HAVE TO BE ADDED
— from Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Apicius - Shells and bones decay and disappear when left on the bottom of the sea, where sediment is not accumulating.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Or sediment may be deposited to any thickness and extent over a shallow bottom, if it continue slowly to subside.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - the water of this river is turbid, tho dose not possess as much sediment as that of the Missouri.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - There is a sediment indeed at the bottom of the vessel, but all the water above it is clear and transparent.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - The Current of the Missourie is less rapid & contains much less Sediment of the Same Colour.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Ideas are mental sediment; conceived things are mental growths.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - RESIANT, resident. RESIDENCE, sediment.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - RESIANT, resident. RESIDENCE, sediment.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson