Literary notes about spawn (AI summary)
The word "spawn" serves as a multifaceted term in literature, straddling the line between scientific description and metaphorical denunciation. In many works, it is used in a literal sense to denote the reproductive process of marine life or fungi—for instance, when authors detail fish ascending rivers to deposit their spawn or describe the cultivation of mushrooms ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, the term is employed figuratively to evoke moral or societal decay, as seen when writers curse someone as the “spawn of Satan” or liken human masses to a dehumanized brood ([4], [5]). This layering of meanings highlights the term’s versatility, allowing it to simultaneously suggest natural creation and evoke potent images of corruption and reproach.
- This extends from the north side of Cape Ann about to Portsmouth and is resorted to in winter by large schools of cod coming here to spawn.
— from Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Maine by Walter H. (Walter Herbert) Rich - In late autumn or in winter the salmon spawn in the rivers.
— from The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4)A Plain Story Simply Told by J. Arthur (John Arthur) Thomson - Brick , trade-term for a mass of mushroom spawn, in dimensions the size of a brick of masonry.
— from Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc. by Charles McIlvaine - Men in history, men in the world of to-day, are bugs, are spawn, and are called "the mass" and "the herd.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - “Devil take you, spawn of Satan—whither?” growled the soldier.
— from Love-at-Arms Being a Narrative Excerpted from the Chronicles of Urbino During The Dominion of the High and Mighty Messer Guidobaldo Da Montefeltro by Rafael Sabatini
