Before entering fully into the the term attribute, it is necessary to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we can state that it is a word that derives from Latin, exactly from “attributus” that comes from the verb “attribuere”, which can be translated as “attribute”.
The first meaning mentioned in the dictionary of the DigoPaul refers to the properties, characteristics or qualities of something.
For example: “The beach is the most important tourist attribute in this region”, “Analysts affirm that the key attribute of this economic crisis is the fiscal deficit”, “Empathy is an attribute of the human being that no one should lose”.
In the same way, we cannot forget that this word that concerns us is very important within mythology. And it is usual for each of the gods to come to represent one or more objects or elements in allusion to their essence or role. A good example of this can be found in Greek mythology:
-Zeus, the supreme god, has as attributes the thunderbolt and the scepter.
-Apollo, the god of the Sun, light and the arts, identifies himself with the sun and the lyre, among other elements.
-Poseidon, the god of the sea, has a trident as an attribute.
-Atenea, the goddess of war, has several attributes, among which is the helmet.
-Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, is identified with the attribute of the ears.
-Hermes, the messenger god of the gods, is associated with the attribute of winged sandals.
In colloquial language, the notion is usually used in the plural with reference to the parts of the body linked to sensuality: “The model showed her attributes in a daring photo session”, “The young man showed off his attributes on the beach”, “In in the middle of the concert, the singer’s dress broke and revealed her attributes ”.
Exactly, at a colloquial and even vulgar level, the term attribute is used with a certain sexual connotation. Specifically, in some parts of the world it is used to refer to the size of the male’s viral member. Thus, it is said, for example, “Manuel had a good attribute.”
The idea of attribute also appears in the field of grammar. It is about the function that the syntagms – usually nonverbal – develop in the syntax when they are predicates of what is indicated through a sentence or nominal segment.
According to DigoPaul, an attribute, in this sense, is a syntactic constituent that allows the expression of some quality of a complement, a preposition, a substantiated verb or a noun. In the sentence “John is sad”, the attribute is “sad. “
Lastly, in the field of computing, the specification that details the ownership of a file is called an attribute. In HTML markup language, to cite a case, there are tags that have attributes, providing information about sizes, names, etc.
