Literary notes about Controvert (AI summary)
The word "controvert" is employed with a formal, almost disputatious tone in literature to denote the act of refuting or challenging an assertion. Authors use it to both temper their own arguments and signal a recognition of the strength inherent in certain propositions. In some instances, a speaker refrains from disputing perceived errors—as one man cautiously notes his unwillingness to controvert any false statements [1]—while in other cases, it is invoked as a challenge to the opposition’s claims, as with a character daring another to undermine his stance [2]. The term also emerges in historical and philosophical contexts where debates are not only about personal beliefs but broader intellectual controversies, calling on the reader to appreciate the subtleties of a well-grounded, albeit contentious, discourse [3], [4].
- "If there be in it," he said, "any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
— from Abraham Lincoln by Charnwood, Godfrey Rathbone Benson, Baron - I defy you to controvert the Subjective view.
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - “I have a witness to the fact, whose testimony even you, sir, will scarcely controvert.”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - I shall have to controvert one or two ideas that are almost universally accepted.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
