Literary notes about grounded (AI summary)
In literature, “grounded” often functions as a bridge between the physical and the abstract. Authors employ it to suggest that emotions, beliefs, or ideas are firmly rooted in experience or principle, as when a traumatic moment fixes a neurosis [1] or when a conviction is based on instinctive reality [2]. At times it is used in a literal sense to describe objects or vessels coming to rest—such as ships cast upon a beach—thereby evoking images of stability and permanence [3, 4]. Equally, thinkers argue that reasoning or moral beliefs must be well-founded, anchored in clear principles rather than mere conjecture [5, 6]. This dual usage enriches the term’s impact, merging concrete imagery with deeper intellectual or emotional certainty [7].
- The traumatic neuroses show clear indications that they are grounded in a fixation upon the moment of the traumatic disaster.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - And for this sin there is no remedy, It is so grounded inward in my heart.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - The anchor is cast from the prow; the sterns are grounded on the beach.
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil - The boat, when it did come, grounded on a sand-bar a few miles below where we were in camp.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - But this inference is chiefly grounded on analogy, and it is immaterial whether or not it be accepted.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Plato's is the best grounded in reason; but to succeed it would have to count on a degree of virtue absolutely unprecedented in man.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - But it’s well to begin in time and be thoroughly grounded, Miss Stacy says.”
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
