Literary notes about unusual (AI summary)
The term “unusual” is frequently used in literature to signal a departure from the norm, inviting readers to pay special attention to what might otherwise go unnoticed. Authors employ it to spotlight peculiar language forms or behaviors—as when an archaic phrasing is highlighted ([1]) or when a character shows a rare burst of intensity ([2]). It can denote both physical and emotional divergence: unusual weather that imbues a scene with foreboding ([3]) and unexpected personal actions that underscore a character’s complexity ([4], [5]). In scientific or descriptive passages, “unusual” emphasizes rarity in natural phenomena ([6], [7]), while in narratives it may point to events that unsettle or transform the ordinary ([8], [9]). Across various genres, the word thus serves to mark moments of heightened significance, whether by drawing attention to linguistic curiosities, emotional extremes, or striking abnormalities, ensuring that the reader remains alert to the remarkable elements woven into the fabric of the narrative ([10], [11]).
- In this latter instance however the great preponderance of ancient authority is in favour of the unusual form τῷ θεῷ πατρί. and i. 12.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - “What did you do to him?” cried the colonel, with unusual intensity.
— from The innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton - The banks leap backward, and the streams divide; The sky shrunk upward with unusual dread, And trembling Tiber div’d beneath his bed.
— from The Aeneid by Virgil - Syme, who had sat down once more with his usual insolent languor, got to his feet with an unusual air of hesitation.
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton - She greeted Cecil with unusual radiance, because she felt so safe.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - This is likewise the case when the abdominal muscles act downwards with unusual force in expelling the contents of the intestinal canal.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin - Meanwhile I was examining this unusual bird.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - Something unusual and terrible was to happen.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - Disappointed at a failure like this, which for him was most unusual, Cuchulainn went away to a menhir where he sat down and fell asleep.
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz - A very few—geniuses, we call them—have this marked in an unusual degree, and very early in life.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - We're certainly seeing some unusual things, and for two months we've had no time for boredom.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne
