Literary notes about Substantially (AI summary)
The adverb "substantially" is employed to indicate that something is essentially or largely as described, even if not exactly identical in every detail. Authors use it to suggest that the main essence or framework remains the same despite minor differences—as when a march is characterized as "substantially what I designed" [1] or when narrative accounts are reported as "substantially the same" [2, 3]. It also qualifies descriptions of physical constructions, such as stating a building is "substantially constructed of stonework" [4], or marks a general consistency within processes and accounts, like the recurring thematic elements in different retellings [5]. Overall, the word serves as a nuanced qualifier that preserves the main idea while allowing for slight variations.
- Our march, was substantially what I designed--straight on Columbia, feigning on Branchville and Augusta.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - Year by year the balance is struck—a few more, a few less—substantially the same when the record is closed.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis - The theory of Cushman and of Eckhardt is substantially the same, and may be stated as follows.
— from The Devil is an Ass by Ben Jonson - All the baths, wells, ponds, and buildings were substantially constructed of stonework, as also the theatres where the singers and dancers performed.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) by Bernal Díaz del Castillo - My own story was never written, but the following narrative is Jim’s manuscript, substantially as he brought it to me.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather
