Literary notes about Customary (AI summary)
In literature the term “customary” is frequently employed to signal a practice or behavior deeply ingrained in the fabric of a society or character’s routine. It acts as a marker of established order, whether referring to social gestures, as seen when a greeting is described with its customary grace [1], or to habitual cultural practices, such as the prescribed rates or rituals of sacrifice [2, 3]. Authors from different eras and genres use the word to evoke a sense of reliability or predictability—the expected norm in a particular milieu—as when silence is maintained by tradition [4] or when objects are arranged according to long-practiced procedures [5]. This literary device, by its consistent recall of customary ways, helps readers anchor their understanding of both the social and moral order depicted in the narrative [6, 7].
- She pronamed before me in the customary gesture of greeting from a householder to a monk.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - The customary rate varied from ten to thirty-three and one third per cent.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon - On the following day he took another bath and offered the customary sacrifices.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian - They, therefore, approached the passage with the customary silence of their guarded habits.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - In nine hours the water had risen to its customary level—that is to say, it was within twenty-three feet of the top.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - Upon inquiring the use of this parade, she was informed it was customary to do so.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe - This conception of the customary as a condition of existence is carried into the slightest detail of morality.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
