How is "of" defined in these examples?

[alkaspeltzar]

Book of stories, list of groceries, flowchart of people....

Does "of" here mean "having as contents or involved with, or does it mean more generally related or concerned with?

I guess my question comes from the example "list of groceries"...the list is naming groceries, but the list does not hold or have them. So 'of' here must mean the list is involving as subject matter or consisting of groceries thru a list. Would that a be right? What are other thoughts?

IF anyone knows of a good example of this from a dictionary that would be great, most i looked at seemed a little vague.

Thanks

 

[alkaspeltzar]

Never mind, i think i figure it out. The word "of" can mean many things, one defintion from Longman's Dictionary states:
"used to say what a story, some news is about, or what a picture, map etc shows"

In my examples "book of stories" that is how it is being used. They are saying the book talks about/gives/has the contents of stories. Same with "list of groceries", it is a list expressing, show or listing groceries.

Guess i read too deeply. THanks

 

[Tdol]

I think your original ideas are a bit over the top- it's an inexact preposition, so it can be hard to pin it down at times.

 

[alkaspeltzar]

I think your original ideas are a bit over the top- it's an inexact preposition, so it can be hard to pin it down at times.

Tdol, i agree my original question and example were pushing it.

But do you agree how i defined it based on the dictionary is probably right, that many times we use the word "of" generally to relate that a book communicates as story as in my example? 'Of' means in general that something is related, involved, contained etc etc.

 

[Tdol]

'Of' means in general that something is related, involved, contained

I'd go along with this.