Literary notes about pecuniary (AI summary)
The adjective "pecuniary" has been used across literature to foreground matters involving money, economic status, and financial transactions. Authors employ it to describe everything from impending financial hardships to everyday monetary exchanges. For instance, in narratives of personal distress and vulnerability, such as in [1] and [2], it underscores the anxiety of potential debt and property seizure, while in [3] and [4], characters express feelings of unworthiness or embarrassment owing to financial shortcomings. Conversely, the word is also used to underscore concrete economic exchanges, as seen in [5] and [6] where formal proofs of financial need or compensation details are emphasized. Some texts even extend the term's reach to comment on broader economic standards and historical barter systems, as exemplified by [7]. Moreover, in works like [8] and [9], pecuniary considerations frame compensation and emolument discussions as central to the narrative’s conflicts and resolutions. Overall, "pecuniary" serves as an effective literary device bridging personal, social, and institutional dimensions of monetary affairs throughout diverse genres and eras.
- He might come under pecuniary embarrassments, and his property be seized by creditors; or he might die, without making any arrangements in his favor.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs - He was always in pecuniary difficulty, and, with his sick wife, frequently in want of the merest necessaries of life.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - 'It is only, ma'am,' Mr Sampson explained, in exceedingly low spirits, 'because, in a pecuniary sense, I am painfully conscious of my unworthiness.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - Another cause for pecuniary embarrassment was the irregularity of Pradier’s contribution to the maintenance of his and Juliette’s child.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - Candidates who propose to claim pecuniary assistance (a bourse or demi-bourse ) must present formal proofs of their need of it.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Turning to the speaker, I inquired with some caution the amount of pecuniary compensation offered for the work.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Trade in those days consisted in barter, the cow being the pecuniary standard by which the value of everything was measured.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - Even for real and deep injuries they were commonly willing to accept a pecuniary compensation."
— from The Iliad by Homer - Added to which of course would be the pecuniary emolument by no means to be sneezed at, going hand in hand with his tuition fees.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce
