Literary notes about radical (AI summary)
In literature, “radical” is employed with remarkable versatility, often conveying notions of profound transformation or extreme positions. In some contexts it describes a deep, fundamental change or difference—as in the radical alteration of sailors’ diets [1] or the radical change in social conceptions [2, 3]—emphasizing foundational shifts beyond mere superficial change. At times, the term marks political or ideological extremism, identifying characters with fervent, unconventional views [4, 5, 6, 7]. Additionally, “radical” can denote an essential or intrinsic quality, as when it is linked to the basic principles of nature or thought [8, 9]. Its usage even extends into technical language, indicating a mathematical root or primary element [10, 11, 12]. This multiplicity of meanings allows authors to express both objective differences and subjective attitudes with a single evocative word.
- It required an event which came directly under the official eye to bring about radical changes in the diet of the sailors.
— from Scurvy, Past and Present by Alfred F. Hess - These studies have, nevertheless, contributed to a radical change in our conceptions of human nature.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Here was a radical change in my opinions, and in the action logically resulting from that change.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - My own views are so extremely liberal that I think I am a Radical myself.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - I mean this, that there were always Radical revolutionists; but now there are Tory revolutionists also.
— from What's Wrong with the World by G. K. Chesterton - Do you know Sir Harry Otway—a Radical if ever there was?”
— from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - We know that this is a work for whole generations, but as we believe it to be radical and effectual, it should be at once begun.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - Because of this radical correspondence between visible things and human thoughts, savages, who have only what is necessary, converse in figures.
— from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson - The radical impulses at work in any animal must continue to speak while he lives, for they are his essence.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - Integration of the algebraical differentials, which contain a radical of the second degree of the form √ c + bx + ax 2 .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Reduction of the radical to one of the forms √ x 2 + x 2 , √ a 2 - x 2 , √ x 2 - a 2 .
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - This last form may be due to syncope ( 111, a ) of the radical a .
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane
