attribute
noun
Attribute — a quality understood as belonging essentially to a thing
Definition
An abstraction belonging to or characteristic of an entity
In depth
An attribute is an abstract quality or characteristic considered as belonging to a particular entity, the trait by which a thing can be described, recognized, or distinguished from others. The word implies a relationship of possession: an attribute does not exist independently but always belongs to something, coloring how that something is understood.
Origin
The word descends from Latin attribuere, to assign or bestow, formed from ad- (to) and tribuere (to give or allot). That sense of deliberate assignment lingers in the modern word, which still implies that an attribute is, in some sense, given to or recognized in a thing, rather than simply inherent without acknowledgment.
Usage examples
"Patience, her mother always said, was the one attribute that could not be taught, only practiced."
"The database recorded dozens of attributes for every item in the collection, from material to provenance."
"Among the saint's traditional attributes in religious painting was a single white lily, instantly recognizable to any medieval viewer."
How to use it
Attribute moves comfortably between technical contexts, like data classification, and humanistic ones, like character description or art history, where it can also refer to a recognizable symbolic object traditionally associated with a particular figure.
Related concepts
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