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.
- 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 - 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 - 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 - FERTILITY OF VARIETIES WHEN CROSSED, AND OF THEIR MONGREL OFFSPRING.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - 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 - "You have no more spirit than a mongrel cur.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - 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