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Literary notes about apportion (AI summary)

The word “apportion” has been used in literature to express the careful distribution or allocation of various elements—ranging from time and resources to moral responsibility and abstract qualities. In Ben Jonson’s works, for example, the term is linked with clever division, almost as if highlighting a witty partitioning of traits ([1], [2]). Authors like Hawthorne and Yogananda use it to denote the precise allotment of a lifespan or minute segments of time ([3], [4]), while Griffis and Chekhov turn to it in the context of educational instruction and financial management ([5], [6]). Du Bois and Eliot invoke the term when discussing the division of goods and moral duties ([7], [8]), and its reach even extends to mythological narratives and cross-language usage, as shown in the works of Mooney and Galdós ([9], [10]).
  1. PARLOUS, clever, shrewd. PART, apportion.
    — from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson
  2. PARLOUS, clever, shrewd. PART, apportion.
    — from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson
  3. By its aid I could apportion the lifetime of any mortal at whom you might point your finger.
    — from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  4. The herculean labors of his life require him to apportion his time minutely.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  5. The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction.
    — from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis
  6. They ought really to apportion the funds.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  7. They do not know: What to do How to do it Who could do it best or How to apportion the resulting goods.
    — from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois
  8. It is not for us men to apportion the shares of moral guilt and retribution.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  9. Uneʻlănûñ′hĭ—“The Apportioner”; “I am apportioning,” ganeʻlaskû′ ; “I apportion” (habitually), ganeʻlaskĭ .
    — from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney
  10. compartir t divide, apportion.
    — from Doña Perfecta by Benito Pérez Galdós

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