Literary notes about LOATHE (AI summary)
In literature, "loathe" conveys an intense, often visceral feeling of disgust or hatred that authors apply to people, ideas, customs, and even oneself. Its usage spans from expressing personal revulsion towards a particular trait or behavior—as when a character despises cosmetic enhancements [1] or a supernatural menace [2]—to articulating a broader societal or existential alienation [3]. The term also appears in contexts of self-reproach and internal conflict [4, 5], and even in the rejection of mundane aspects of life [6]. This flexible deployment underscores the word's power to evoke deep emotional responses and highlight the stark divisions between what is desired and what is utterly repugnant.
- I am not a man able to go through trouble, as other men I find her painted, which makes me loathe her (cosmetics)
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys - I was, in fact, beginning to shudder at the presence of this being, this Un-Dead, as Van Helsing called it, and to loathe it.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - In the best there is still something to loathe; and the best is still something that must be surpassed!—
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - I do wonder you do not loathe yourselves.
— from The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster - I don't want to live, because I loathe everything!
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I nauseate walking: ’tis a country diversion; I loathe the country and everything that relates to it.
— from The Way of the World by William Congreve
