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Literary notes about mongrel (AI summary)

The word "mongrel" in literature serves as both a factual descriptor of mixed-breed entities and a metaphorical tool to signal moral or cultural ambiguity. In scientific texts, as seen in Darwin’s discussions, it carries a neutral technical meaning to denote hybrids resulting from reciprocal crosses, whether in plants or animals ([1],[2],[3],[4]). In contrast, literary authors often employ it to evoke disapproval or to highlight a perceived lack of purity—comparing characters or traits to inferior, mixed-breed animals, as reflected in works by Dickens and Maugham ([5],[6]). Additionally, its usage is extended to language and cultural identity, subtly critiquing the complexity of blended heritage or dialects ([7]). This dual function enriches the text, imbuing physical descriptions with broader connotations about identity and worth.
  1. 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
  2. Fertility of varieties when crossed and of their mongrel offspring not universal.
    — from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  3. These alone are the unimportant differences, which Gartner is able to point out, between hybrid and mongrel plants.
    — from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  4. FERTILITY OF VARIETIES WHEN CROSSED, AND OF THEIR MONGREL OFFSPRING.
    — from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  5. To inquire what he might have done, if he had had any boldness, would be like inquiring what a mongrel cur might do, if it had the spirit of a tiger.
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  6. "You have no more spirit than a mongrel cur.
    — from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
  7. You have to know French particularly mongrel French, the patois spoken by Tom, Dick, and Harry of the multiform complexions—or you can’t get along.
    — from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

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