attribute

Etymology

From Latin attributus past participle of attribuere.

noun

1. A characteristic or quality of a thing.
   His finest attribute is his kindness.
2. An object that is considered typical of someone or some function, in particular as an artistic convention.
   The eagle and the bolt of lightning are attributes of Jove.
3. (grammar) A word that qualifies a noun.
4. (logic) That which is predicated or affirmed of a subject; a predicate; an accident.
5. (computing, object-oriented programming) An option or setting belonging to some object.
   This packet has its coherency attribute set to zero.
   A file with the read-only attribute set cannot be overwritten.
6. (programming) A semantic item with which a method or other code element may be decorated.
   Properties can be marked as obsolete with an attribute, which will cause the compiler to generate a warning if they are used.
   This attribute is used to declare in metadata that the attributed method or class requires SocketPermission of the declared form. 2003, Peter Drayton, Ben Albahari, Ted Neward, C# in a Nutshell, page 536
7. (computer graphics, dated) A numeric value representing the colours of part of the screen display.
   […] you can only carry two objects, your attributes clash when you walk past multi-coloured objects and your enemies fly up and down from the ceiling. 1987, Marcus Berkmann, Sceptre Of Bagdad (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 17
   If any of the video buffer's background attribute bits are on, MONO converts the attribute to 70h (inverse video). 1989, PC: The Independent Guide to IBM Personal Computers

verb

1. To ascribe (something) to a given cause, reason etc.
2. To associate ownership or authorship of (something) to someone.
   This poem is attributed to Browning.
   Hākim's atypical actions should not be attributed to Islam as much as to insanity, which eventually led him to proclaim himself as Allah, whereupon he was murdered by outraged fellow Muslims. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 278