Literary notes about deleterious (AI summary)
In literature, "deleterious" functions as a precise adjective to convey harm or damage, whether in the context of health, environment, or social influence. Authors use it to denote substances that produce toxic or counterproductive effects, as when a contaminant in food is described as deleterious [1] or when a chemical agent in an industrial setting nearly overwhelms a character with its harmful fumes [2]. The term also captures more abstract, insidious dangers; for instance, it is employed to describe how prolonged exposure to divisive social practices can undermine morale and performance [3], or to illustrate the malignant transformation of otherwise wholesome elements under negative influence [4]. In each use, "deleterious" enriches the narrative by sharply delineating the threshold between benefit and injury.
- The advantages of this process are that the fruit juices will remain sweet indefinitely, will not ferment, and are free from all deleterious matter.
— from Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians by William K. (William King) David - He worked incessantly among his furnaces, retorts, and crucibles, and almost poisoned himself with deleterious fumes.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - The Army, he concluded, should learn from its wartime experience the deleterious effect of segregation on motivation and ultimately on performance.
— from Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 by Morris J. MacGregor - Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch?
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
