Literary notes about ineptitude (AI summary)
Literary authors employ "ineptitude" as a precise term to denote a lack of skill or failure in judgment across a wide array of contexts. It may characterize the overwhelming incompetence of an individual—illustrated by assessments of colossal inability in performing administrative duties ([1]) or blunders in military strategy ([2])—or critique the clumsy execution of prose, where even the construction of a sentence falls short ([3], [4]). At times, it functions as a marker of philosophical or creative deficiency, highlighting the flaws of both individuals and larger institutions ([5], [6]). In other cases, writers use the term in a self-deprecatory or reflective manner, acknowledging personal limitations or underscoring a character’s internal struggles ([7], [8]).
- The administration of the Department was left largely to Huntington Wilson, whose ineptitude was colossal.
— from The Mirrors of Washington by Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace) Gilbert - Clinton's position was difficult but he was saved by Lee's ineptitude.
— from Washington and His Comrades in Arms: A Chronicle of the War of Independence by George McKinnon Wrong - And he relapsed into silence, vexed at the ineptitude of the second sentence.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Bathos, ineptitude, and lines that refuse to scan are the stigmata of visitors’-book verse.
— from The Old Inns of Old England, Volume 2 (of 2) A Picturesque Account of the Ancient and Storied Hostelries of Our Own Country by Charles G. (Charles George) Harper - Ineptitude is something which language needs to shake off.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - There are so many incomplete creatures in Germany already who would fain conceal their ineptitude beneath such noble names.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche - One of my teachers used to say that the only unforgivable sin in the universe is ineptitude.
— from The Weirdest World by R. A. Lafferty - "I confess I do not understand these matters; and you must bear with my ineptitude.
— from The Irrational KnotBeing the Second Novel of His Nonage by Bernard Shaw
