Literary notes about attaint (AI summary)
The term "attaint" in literature frequently carries a dual weight, both as a technical legal term and a poetic expression of defilement or disgrace. In many legal and political contexts, it is employed to denote the act of legally condemning or discrediting someone—effectively staining their honor and nullifying their rights or titles (see [1], [2], [3]). Meanwhile, its use in poetic language often evokes a sense of moral or reputational corruption, suggesting that even the brightest reputation can be sullied by a single wrongful act (as in [4] and [5]). Beyond these domains, "attaint" sometimes appears in more literal descriptions, marking physical hits or blows in battle, thereby exemplifying its breadth of meaning across different textual genres (cf. [6] and [7]).