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Literary notes about fetching (AI summary)

Across a range of literary texts, the word "fetching" demonstrates a rich versatility in meaning. In some narratives, it performs the straightforward task of indicating the retrieval of an item—whether it be water drawn for a household duty ([1], [2]), cakes fetched for a relative ([3]), or even turning to physical labor such as hauling objects ([4], [5]). In other instances, it conveys an emotive or conversational nuance; characters may "fetch a deep sigh" as a way of expressing profound emotion or resignation ([6], [7]), or the term may be employed in dialogue to compliment someone's attractive qualities ([8], [9]). Thus, its usage spans both the literal act of carrying something from one place to another and a more figurative mode of communicating attitude, mood, or social interaction.
  1. There he met one of the female companions of Shiribadatt’s daughter fetching water for the princess.
    — from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway
  2. I’d better go to my neighbor’s instead of fetching the water.”
    — from Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
  3. Soon afterwards the wolf knocked, and cried, "Open the door, grandmother, I am little Red-Cap, and am fetching you some cakes."
    — from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
  4. He whirled over, fetching the ground on his back and side.
    — from The call of the wild by Jack London
  5. But we four men set to in earnest, digging with all our might and main, shovelling away at the great white pile, and fetching it into the meadow.
    — from Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. (Richard Doddridge) Blackmore
  6. Then fetching a deep sigh from the bottom of his heart, “Alas!
    — from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Saint the Venerable Bede
  7. ented sat up, and fetching a deep sigh, said, “Now I am whole, for I am restored to my senses.”
    — from Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England by Saint the Venerable Bede
  8. You are very charming and fetching, Mademoiselle, but I doubt your being able to bring Williams to your feet.”
    — from Molly Brown of Kentucky by Nell Speed
  9. Nothing is more fetching, to my thinking, than a tasteful boating costume.
    — from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome

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