Literary notes about old (AI summary)
The term "old" is employed in literature with remarkable versatility, serving as a marker of age, tradition, or historical significance. It can describe the physical state of characters, as in a "little old man" or an "old woman" full of life or sorrow ([1], [2], [3], [4]), while occasionally it is used to hint at longstanding relationships or enduring institutions ([5], [6]). At times, "old" carries an affectionate or ironic tone, evoking memories of past vitality or venerable authority—as when ancient deities or age-old traditions are recalled with both respect and wistfulness ([7], [8]). Moreover, the word frequently functions almost as a time stamp, grounding narratives in an era gone by, whether referring to a historic building, a family legacy, or cultural customs that have endured generations ([9], [10], [11]).
- Two of the men appeared, bearing the woman in their arms, and carried her to the carriage, into which the little old man got after her.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Page 73 [Pg 73] "Poor old Mole!" said the Rat kindly.
— from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame - she demanded, and her mother, with sudden tenderness, said: “Very well, old lady, stop the horse.”
— from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - And yet there she was, lying in the next room, dead—an old woman, and he was an old man, speaking of the days of hope, long passed away.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. Andersen - He and I are old friends—we grew up together in the same Nebraska town—and we had much to say to each other.
— from My Ántonia by Willa Cather - The business was established and had old roots; is it not one thing to set up a new gin-palace and another to accept an investment in an old one?
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - The old god no longer could do what he used to do.
— from The Antichrist by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - And yet, from childhood up familiar with the note, To Life it now renews the old allegiance.
— from Faust [part 1]. Translated Into English in the Original Metres by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Later, he formed a partnership with Howard E. Case, buying out the old house of Beard & Howell.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - —We come next in descending order to that division of Primary or Palæozoic rocks which immediately underlie the Devonian group or Old Red Sandstone.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - They go about together, and look at old towns and cathedrals and castles.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
