Literary notes about Whereby (AI summary)
The term "whereby" frequently serves as a formal connective that explains the method or means through which something happens or is achieved. Writers employ it to tie a process directly to its outcome or to indicate the instrumentality of an action. In philosophical and theological texts, for instance, it appears to demonstrate how an abstract concept manifests in reality—as in discussions of persistence and transformation ([1], [2]) or the way ideas and words serve to signify things ([3]). In literary and historical narratives, it is used to delineate turning points or causal mechanisms, whether in matters of fate and destiny ([4], [5]) or even in describing subtle techniques in everyday life ([6], [7]). This versatility marks "whereby" as a succinct and precise tool for linking cause and effect, or intention and result, in diverse contexts.
- The endeavour, whereby a thing endeavours to persist in its own being, involves no finite time, but an indefinite time.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Proof.—Desire is the essence of a man (Def. of the Emotions, i.), that is, the endeavour whereby a man endeavours to persist in his own being.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - It is further necessary that they should distinguish between idea and words, whereby we signify things.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Whereby the oversweet moon of honey changes itself into long years of vinegar; perhaps divulsive vinegar, like Hannibal's.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - He promised he would do it, and also expressed a readiness; to make any arrangements whereby I could be purchased.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs - As sops I light-heartedly flung him the big pantomime and most of the ballet in the second act, whereby I reckoned we might save a whole half-hour.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner
