Literary notes about Invidious (AI summary)
In literature, "invidious" is employed to convey a sense of unfairness, bias, or offensiveness—often implying that a remark, task, or comparison is likely to provoke resentment. For instance, it is used to underscore an act of unjust removal that carries a weight of personal indignity [1], while in political and social discourse the term criticizes arrangements or proposals that create or imply inequalities [2][3]. At times it also characterizes tasks or positions that are inherently objectionable or likely to foster enmity, highlighting the discomfort associated with undue comparisons or preferences [4][5]. This layered usage enriches the text by suggesting that the subject under discussion is not merely disagreeable, but tainted by an underlying quality of selective or injurious judgment.
- I was soon waited upon by the conductor, and ordered out; whereupon I demanded the reason for my invidious removal.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - The idea is too gross and too invidious to be entertained.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - This method avoids the invidious course of valuing an American or a British life at a higher figure than a French or an Italian.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes - It is, we confess, an unpleasant and an invidious task, to pick to pieces, bit by bit, the work of an author of high reputation.
— from The Philosophy of the Conditioned by Henry Longueville Mansel - If only you would believe this, I think I could bear my invidious position with more resignation.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud
