Literary notes about hybrid (AI summary)
The term “hybrid” is used in literature to denote a process or product of mixture—whether of species, ideas, or cultural traits. In scientific texts, as seen in Darwin’s discussions on species and fertility ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]), “hybrid” precisely marks the offspring or combination of different biological origins, while in horticultural reports the word describes various cultivated or naturally occurring crosses, from coffee varieties ([7], [8], [9], [10]) to nut trees ([11], [12], [13], [14], [15]). At the same time, the term is employed metaphorically in philosophical or cultural contexts, illustrating mixtures of traditions or qualities—as when literary figures comment on blended identities ([16], [17], [18], [19]) or even in the naming of social groups and garments ([20], [21], [22]). This range of usages underscores the word’s flexibility, bridging scientific specificity with broader cultural and symbolic nuances.
- First, for the sterility of species when crossed and of their hybrid offspring.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - These facts show how completely the fertility of a hybrid may be independent of its external resemblance to either pure parent.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - When two species are crossed, one has sometimes a prepotent power of impressing its likeness on the hybrid.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Hybrid plants produced from a reciprocal cross generally resemble each other closely, and so it is with mongrel plants from a reciprocal cross.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - The sterility of first crosses and of their hybrid progeny has not been acquired through natural selection.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - HYBRID.—The offspring of the union of two distinct species.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - Hybrid coffee in Mysore.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Some Interesting Hybrids The most popular hybrid belongs to a crossing of liberica and arabica .
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - A New hybrid Ceylon coffee.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - Chalotii , probably a hybrid of C. congensis with C. canephora .
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - They seem to be the Japanese species, C. crenata type, or possibly hybrid, not strictly Japanese.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - Results from the hybrid test plots are not included in this discussion.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - 2. Showing, above, C. mollissima , Chinese chestnut, left, and C. seguini , seguin chestnut, right, parents of mollissima × seguini hybrid below.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - This is one of the hybrid English walnuts that is located on the grounds at the Geneva Experiment Station.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - The Jones hybrid filberts stand from six to eight feet high, except those planted recently.
— from Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting - I hate Rousseau, even in the Revolution itself: the latter was the historical expression of this hybrid of idealist and canaille.
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche - The historical nations of Europe, biologically hybrid, are united by common language, folkways, and mores.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The same determination made Jamaica surrender the right of self-government and renders her satisfied with a hybrid political arrangement today.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The hybrid European—a tolerably ugly plebeian, taken all in all—absolutely requires a costume: he needs history as a storeroom of costumes.
— from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - “They ape the Brāhmanical customs, and call themselves by the curious hybrid name of Vaisya Brāhmans.”
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston - The Tea-Gown Every one knows that a tea-gown is a hybrid between a wrapper and a ball dress.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - (It appeared my place was to be a hybrid between gouvernante and lady's-maid.)
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë