Literary notes about similar (AI summary)
In literature, “similar” functions as a versatile comparative marker that draws attention to shared qualities, recurring patterns, or parallel situations. For instance, in historical and analytical texts, authors use "similar" to highlight recurring practices or phenomena—such as Gibbon noting analogous tax practices ([1], [2], [3]) or Darwin comparing biological methods across species ([4], [5])—while in ethical and philosophical contexts, it signals analogous reasoning or behaviors, as seen in Sidgwick’s ethical inquiries ([6], [7]) and Freud’s examinations of neuroses ([8], [9]). In narrative and descriptive works, the term is equally valuable: it connects events and descriptions seamlessly, whether by emphasizing comparable actions in a character’s life ([10], [11]) or by underscoring thematic symbolic equivalences in myth and legend ([12], [13]). Thus, “similar” not only serves to compare but also deepens the reader’s understanding by linking ideas and images across diverse genres and contexts.
- A similar tax was levied on the revolt of Bagdad, (tom. iii.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - p. 78,) who has quoted from the prophet Jeremiah a passage of similar import.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Note 50 ( return ) [ A Greek of Candia, who had served the Venetians in a similar undertaking, (Spond.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - With all organic beings, excepting perhaps some of the very lowest, sexual reproduction seems to be essentially similar.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - The elder De Candolle has made nearly similar observations on the general nature of the affinities of distinct orders of plants.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - it is important to examine the answers which his fellow-men have actually given to similar questions.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - And for similar reasons a soldier is expected to show a higher degree of courage than ( e.g. ) a priest.
— from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick - But the ego betrays similar interest in the origin and maintenance of all other neuroses.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Here again we find the same extreme cases and similar relations in the matter of substitution.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - “You may be sure that I took good care never to be found in a similar situation again, never, never.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - I helped Scholastica to take off her coat and waistcoat, and then aided Armelline in a similar manner.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - Similar transformation myths are found all over the world.
— from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney - Similar cries, as we have seen, were also heard on all the harvest-fields of Western Asia.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer