Literary notes about abusive (AI summary)
The term "abusive" in literature has been used with a remarkable flexibility, describing everything from verbal aggression to the seriousness of moral corruption. In some texts, it serves as a critique of practices or behaviors—Émile Durkheim, for example, deems certain extensions of totemism as abusive in their overreach [1]—while in satirical or humorous contexts it paints characters in a vividly negative light, as seen when waiters are labeled “abusive rascals” [2] or an old woman is derided as “RIBIBE” [3], [4]. Poets like Alexander Pope use it to dismiss the work of detractors, referring to “abusive doggerel” [5], whereas novelists such as Dostoyevsky and Galsworthy employ the term to capture personal malice or even episodes of physical violence [6], [7], [8], [9]. This variety of usage demonstrates how “abusive” can simultaneously serve as a marker of intense personal insult and as a broader critique of societal or cultural phenomena, adapting in tone and meaning to fit the dramatic needs of differing narrative moments.
- Certainly this extension of totemism was abusive.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - The waiters at these places are invariably sturdy, fleet, abusive rascals, who cannot speak and will not listen to reason.
— from Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, August 7, 1841 by Various - RIBIBE, abusive term for an old woman.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson - RIBIBE, abusive term for an old woman.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - Pope had good reason to fear that the malice of his enemies might not be content to stop with abusive doggerel.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - he cried, suddenly changing his abusive tone for one of great courtesy.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - But he's not a good husband to me—last night he hit me, and he was so dreadfully abusive.
— from The Silver Box: A Comedy in Three Acts by John Galsworthy - The old father had been [88] drunk and abusive and foul-tongued the whole of the wedding day and during the party in the evening.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He was very late, and he was most abusive.
— from The Silver Box: A Comedy in Three Acts by John Galsworthy