verb
Attribute, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Attributed; p. pr. & vb. n. Attributing.]
Etymology: [L. attributus, p. p. of attribuere; ad + tribuere to bestow. See Tribute.]
To ascribe; to consider (something) as due or appropriate (to); to refer, as an effect to a cause; to impute; to assign; to consider as belonging (to). We attribute nothing to God that hath any repugnancy or contradiction in it. Abp. Tillotson. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer. Shak.
Syn. -- See Ascribe.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Attribute, n.
1. That which is attributed; a quality which is considered as belonging to, or inherent in, a person or thing; an essential or necessary property or characteristic. But mercy is above this sceptered away; . . . It is an attribute to God himself. Shak.
2. Reputation. [Poetic] Shak.
3. (Paint. & Sculp.)
A conventional symbol of office, character, or identity, added to any particular figure; as, a club is the attribute of Hercules.
4. (Gram.)
Quality, etc., denoted by an attributive; an attributive adjunct or adjective.
Shades of meaning
We may attribute to a person either that which belongs to him or that which we merely suppose to be his. We attribute to God infinite power. We may attribute a wrong intent to an innocent person. We may attribute a result, rightly or wrongly, to a certain cause; in such case, however, attribute carries always a concession of uncertainty or possible error. Where we are quite sure, we simply refer a matter to the cause or class to which it belongs or ascribe to one what is surely his, etc. Many diseases formerly attributed to witchcraft are now referred to the action of micro-organisms. We may attribute a matter in silent thought; we ascribe anything openly in speech or writing; King Saul said of the singing women, "They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands." We associate things which may have no necessary or causal relation; as, we may associate the striking of a clock with the serving of dinner, tho the two are not necessarily connected. We charge a person with what we deem blameworthy. We may impute good or evil, but more commonly evil.
Prepositions
It is uncharitable to attribute evil motives to (archaic unto) others.
noun
Attribute, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Attributed; p. pr. & vb. n. Attributing.]
Etymology: [L. attributus, p. p. of attribuere; ad + tribuere to bestow. See Tribute.]
To ascribe; to consider (something) as due or appropriate (to); to refer, as an effect to a cause; to impute; to assign; to consider as belonging (to). We attribute nothing to God that hath any repugnancy or contradiction in it. Abp. Tillotson. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true and exact performer. Shak.
Syn. -- See Ascribe.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Attribute, n.
1. That which is attributed; a quality which is considered as belonging to, or inherent in, a person or thing; an essential or necessary property or characteristic. But mercy is above this sceptered away; . . . It is an attribute to God himself. Shak.
2. Reputation. [Poetic] Shak.
3. (Paint. & Sculp.)
A conventional symbol of office, character, or identity, added to any particular figure; as, a club is the attribute of Hercules.
4. (Gram.)
Quality, etc., denoted by an attributive; an attributive adjunct or adjective.
Shades of meaning
A quality (L. qualis, such)--the "suchness" of anything, according to the German idiom--denotes what a thing really is in some one respect; an attribute is what we conceive a thing to be in some one respect; thus, while attribute may, quality must, express something of the real nature of that to which it is ascribed; we speak of the attributes of God, the qualities of matter. "Originally 'the attributes of God' was preferred, probably, because men assumed no knowledge of the actual qualities of the Deity, but only of those more or less fitly attributed to him." J. A. H. MURRAY. [M.] Holiness is an attribute of God; the attributes of many heathen deities have been only the qualities of wicked men joined to superhuman power. A property (L. proprius, one's own) is what belongs especially to one thing as its own peculiar possession, in distinction from all other things; when we speak of the qualities or the properties of matter, quality is the more general, property the more limited term. A quality is inherent; a property may be transient; physicists now, however, prefer to term those qualities manifested by all bodies (such as impenetrability, extension, etc.), general properties of matter, while those peculiar to certain substances or to certain states of those substances (as fluidity, malleability, etc.) are termed specific properties; in this wider use of the word property, it becomes strictly synonymous with quality. Compare characteristic; emblem.