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Literary notes about ORNATE (AI summary)

The word "ornate" in literature often conveys a sense of elaborate decoration and intricacy that can describe everything from clothing and architecture to language and rhetoric. In some passages, it depicts lavish detail in physical objects, such as a richly adorned court dress [1], an intricately designed umbrella [2], or an elaborate frame gracing a family altar [3]. At times, it underscores the magnitude of decorative elements in a building or object—whether referring to an ornate door [4], a boldly embellished building front [5], or even the ornate patterns on a mahogany bookcase [6]. Equally, "ornate" is employed to characterize a style of writing or speaking, suggesting an overly elaborate, sometimes affected, mode of rhetoric as seen in critiques of florid language [7] and elaborate discourses that may border on the affected [8]. This dual usage allows writers to either celebrate a sumptuous richness in detail or gently critique an excess of embellishment, adding both visual and tonal layers to their narratives.
  1. They were dressed in the ornate court dress of the Western Empire, he saw.
    — from Millennium by Everett B. Cole
  2. A servant held an ornate umbrella to protect me from the scorching sunlight.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  3. His picture, in an ornate frame, always graced our family altar in the various cities to which Father was transferred by his office.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  4. The hall ended in an ornate door, before which stood no guard.
    — from Red Nails by Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
  5. The ornate front of the building on the right of the yard attracted her and she went nearer.
    — from The Kingdom of Slender Swords by Hallie Erminie Rives
  6. And that was without question a very large and ornate and costly mahogany bookcase with glass doors.
    — from Books and Bookmen by Ian Maclaren
  7. Like all students his oratory in Parliament, when first elected, was more ornate and logical than impressive or forcible.
    — from Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life by Daniel Joseph Kirwan
  8. Euphuism was an affected ornate style of expression, so called from Euphues , by John Lyly, a sixteenth century master of that style.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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