Literary notes about coarse (AI summary)
Writers use the word “coarse” to evoke a sense of roughness, unrefinement, or directness in both physical descriptions and character portrayals. It can describe tangible textures—such as the rugged feel of a sieve or fabric ([1], [2])—as well as less tangible qualities like a rough manner of speaking or unsophisticated behavior ([3], [4], [5]). At times, “coarse” accentuates the blunt or unpolished nature of artistic expression or thought, highlighting the stark qualities of a narrative or a character’s disposition ([6], [7]). In some works, it is admired for its natural, unembellished quality that stands in contrast to refined idealism ([8]), while in others it underlines the crudeness or even vulgarity inherent in social interactions and settings ([9], [10]). Overall, the term is versatile, serving as a descriptor for physical materials, styles of language, and the inherent temperament of characters across diverse literary traditions ([11], [12]).
- Strain through a coarse sieve and allow to settle.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - On this public holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - It sounded horribly coarse, so that he felt sorry for her at once.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - LADY P: Indeed, you may; my breeding Is not so coarse— 1 AVOC:
— from Volpone; Or, The Fox by Ben Jonson - Agrafena Alexandrovna, our monk's really in love with you, you've made a conquest!” he cried, with a coarse laugh.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - But I, alone, would shun these shallow matters, Since all that's coarse provokes my enmity.
— from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - There is never anything coarse either in the thought or the execution.
— from Letters from China and Japan by Harriet Alice Chipman Dewey and John Dewey - The best and dearest to me at present is still a sound peasant, coarse, artful, obstinate and enduring: that is at present the noblest type.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - You come here with coarse, lustful ears, and you do not bring with you your conscience of the art of listening.
— from The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - And now this question, which had once seemed to me grave and important, struck me as crude, petty, and coarse.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - In the field, in the rude cabin, in the press-room, in the factory she was thrown into the companionship of coarse and ignorant men.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois - Then come a layer of bricks or tiles placed close together; a layer of coarse gravel; a layer of finer gravel; and a thick layer of sand at the top.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams
