Literary notes about Intermittent (AI summary)
The word "intermittent" is employed to capture the essence of events or sensations that recur in fits and starts rather than in an unbroken sequence. In medical and technical writings, it vividly describes phenomena like recurring fevers and pulses, evoking the idea of symptoms that strike periodically before subsiding again [1, 2, 3]. In literature, its use extends beyond physical manifestations: it can suggest the fleeting yet recurring sounds of a distant piano or hammer [4, 5], the irregular presence of a mysterious glow or rumble [6, 7], and even the episodic nature of human emotions and ambitions [8, 9]. Whether portraying the natural world, human conditions, or mechanical processes, "intermittent" effectively conveys a rhythm marked by unpredictability—a pattern where intensity builds only to give way to silence, mirroring the inherent variability of life [10, 11].
- He had positive bodily pain,—a violent headache, and a throbbing intermittent pulse.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - 22, intermittent fever, verging upon yellow fever occasionally, as to-day.
— from A Life for a Life, Volume 1 (of 3) by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik - He was ill of swollen liver and spleen, the result of intermittent fever, for a long time after coming into our hands.
— from The King James Version of the Bible - I heard the dull tinkling of a piano at a distance, accompanied by the intermittent knocking of a hammer nearer at hand.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - A short, half-suffocated, intermittent gurgling could be heard, which seemed to come from an adjoining room on the same side as the light.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - Even through the thin clouds, its intermittent red glow had hinted at some mysterious source of power.
— from The Flying Saucers are Real by Donald E. (Donald Edward) Keyhoe - Outside and very near was an intermittent, metallic rattle.
— from The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells - To him, Grant appeared as an intermittent energy, immensely powerful when awake, but passive and plastic in repose.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - He had a weird intermittent genius that made it worth Fox’s while to put up with his lapses and his brutal snubs.
— from The Inheritors by Ford Madox Ford - Chapter 24 The roarings that had stretched in a long line of sound across the face of the forest began to grow intermittent and weaker.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - Thus the geological record will almost necessarily be rendered intermittent.
— from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
