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Literary notes about vituperative (AI summary)

Literary authors often employ "vituperative" to imbue language with a fiercely scornful or abusive tone. It is used to accentuate the intensity of verbal attacks, whether in dialogue or narrative description, as seen when a character reflects on a harsh vocabulary [1] or when political rhetoric is marked by bitter invective [2]. The term also functions to dramatize a scene, lending an almost tangible quality to the force of criticism—transforming ordinary insults into a vehement onslaught, as when a figure’s language is charged with vituperative power [3] or when a public figure’s discourse is catalogued by its cutting invective [4]. In this way, "vituperative" serves as a versatile descriptor that heightens both emotional impact and character insight in literary works.
  1. Till that moment I had never measured the extent of my vituperative vocabulary.
    — from Enchantment by Harold MacGrath
  2. The Republicans particularly excelled in vituperative abuse.
    — from William Jennings Bryan: A Concise But Complete Story of His Life and Services by Harvey Ellsworth Newbranch
  3. It was José's parrot, Benito, flinging to the breeze the most vituperative epithets a rich and racy vocabulary could suggest.
    — from The Trail of Conflict by Emilie Baker Loring
  4. William Prynne, barrister-at-law by profession, by reputation a vituperative pamphleteer, was always ready to denounce, cavil, and rail.
    — from Studies from Court and Cloister: being essays, historical and literary dealing mainly with subjects relating to the XVIth and XVIIth centuries by J. M. (Jean Mary) Stone

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