Literary notes about circumscribed (AI summary)
The term “circumscribed” is deployed in literature with a remarkable duality, describing both literal and figurative confines. In technical and mathematical writing, it is used to denote exact physical boundaries—defining shapes that are inscribed within or drawn around other figures, as seen in discussions of cones, cylinders, and circles [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. In contrast, in reflective or narrative contexts the word often connotes a limitation of experience or scope. Authors employ it to evoke the feeling of being constrained—whether in terms of social relations, life opportunities, or intellectual breadth—capturing the essence of narrow living or restricted vision [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. This flexible usage highlights a broader thematic concern with the limits placed upon both the natural world and the human condition.
- The curve of contact of a cone circumscribed about a surface of the second degree is a plane curve.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The circumscribed cones have edges of regression along the generatrices, which correspond to the points of transition.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Tangent planes, cones, and cylinders circumscribed about topographical surfaces.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Every regular polygon can be inscribed and circumscribed to the circle.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - A regular polygon is circumscribed about the circle.
— from Studies in Logical Theory by John Dewey - Her poverty fettered her exertions, and circumscribed her pleasures.
— from Ormond; Or, The Secret Witness. Volume 1 (of 3) by Charles Brockden Brown - They do not even suspect how circumscribed their lives are.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - The more circumscribed became her state, the more entrancing seemed this other.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - Her rights are not recognized as equal; her sphere is circumscribed—not by her ability, but by her sex.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - Wherever the sphere of action of human beings is artificially circumscribed, their sentiments are narrowed and dwarfed in the same proportion.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill
