Literary notes about apposite (AI summary)
Writers frequently use the word "apposite" to stress that a remark, description, or reference is strikingly appropriate to the subject or situation at hand. In historical and narrative texts alike, it can underscore how a particular statement not only fits the context but also deepens the reader's understanding of a scene or argument—as when an architecturally related comment lends historical weight [1] or when Dickens employs it to wrap up a character's point with an irrefutable conclusion [2]. The term also serves to highlight the uncanny relevance of a seemingly offhand remark or poetic allusion, thereby enhancing the dramatic or rhetorical impact of a passage [3][4]. This nuanced application of "apposite" illustrates how authors across genres and periods achieve both precision and elegance in their language.
- We find another apposite statement in Britton’s History of Exeter Cathedral.
— from Stained Glass Tours in France by Charles Hitchcock Sherrill - There was no replying to this very apposite conclusion, and, therefore, Mr. Pickwick, after settling the reckoning, resumed his walk to Gray’s Inn.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - " This, from him, so unexpectedly apposite, had the effect upon her of a Providential interposition.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - This concluding line our author has condescended to borrow from Milton; but how apposite and forcible is the application!
— from The Rolliad, in Two PartsProbationary Odes for the Laureatship & Political Eclogues by Joseph Richardson
