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Literary notes about Solvent (AI summary)

The term "solvent" has been used in literature with a remarkable range of meanings, stretching from literal chemical applications to rich metaphorical expressions. In its traditional sense, writers refer to a substance that dissolves other materials—whether it’s the universal solvent of alchemy mentioned in early works [1], [2], [3] or the chemical processes involved in coffee brewing and extraction [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. In contrast, metaphorical uses abound: it can describe a force that dissolves the rigidity of art [9], a dissolver of the soul through fear or passion [10], [11], [12], or even serve as an idiom for financial robustness, as in keeping an organization or a bank solvent [13], [14]. Even in more abstract or humorous settings, such as the “solvent tenants” disturbed by ghostly furniture [15] or sharp critiques in literary narratives [16], the term fluidly moves between tangible and figurative realms, embodying both the power to dissolve matter and the capacity to dissolve established societal or emotional structures.
  1. Al′kahest, the so-called universal solvent or menstruum of the alchemists.
    — from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various
  2. MENSTRUE, solvent.
    — from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson
  3. MENSTRUE, solvent.
    — from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson
  4. Because of the difficulty of causing the solvent to penetrate the bean, recourse to grinding resulted.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  5. After extraction, the beans may be steam distilled to remove and to recover any residual traces of solvent, and then dried and roasted.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  6. [136] is given in Table I. Table I—The Solubility of Caffein Solvent Sp.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  7. Any residual traces of the solvent left in the bean are volatilized upon roasting.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  8. The absorbing medium is then treated with a solvent of the caffeol, and the solution is separated from the petrolatum.
    — from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
  9. And as for Life, she is the solvent that breaks up Art, the enemy that lays waste her house.’
    — from Intentions by Oscar Wilde
  10. Fates, the, 10. 617 , 620 E . Fear, a solvent of the soul, 4.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  11. Smoke is almost as great a solvent as divorce: both tend to obscure the moral issue.
    — from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
  12. 9. 581 , 586 , and Laws 2. 667); —sensual pleasure, 7. 519 ; 9. 586 ; a solvent of the soul, 4. 430 A [ cp.
    — from The Republic of Plato by Plato
  13. 9. Keep our Organization Solvent and Functioning.
    — from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting
  14. “Is it possible that Thomson & French are not looked upon as safe and solvent bankers?
    — from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  15. Solvent tenants were disturbed at unhallowed hours by the noise of ghostly furniture vans creeping stealthily away in the moonless night.
    — from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon
  16. With a keenly critical, relentlessly solvent intelligence, she combines a morbid shrinking from all the gross and prosaic detail of the sensual life.
    — from Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen

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