Literary notes about fourth (AI summary)
The word "fourth" in literature is a versatile marker used to denote order, position, time, and structure across an array of contexts. In many texts it designates a sequence in time or events—as in ritual observances on the fourth or fourth day ([1], [2], [3], [4])—while also being used to indicate ordered positions or parts of a whole, such as the fourth toe in an anatomical description ([5]) or the fourth section or act in plays and books ([6], [7], [8]). Additionally, "fourth" frequently functions as an identifier for divisions within a work, helping to structure narratives or discussions, whether it be in numbering chapters, episodes, or even estates, as exemplified by the term "fourth estate" in social commentary ([9]). This multiplicity in usage underscores the word's role in both literal and figurative sequencing, providing readers with clear markers for understanding the progression and organization within literary texts.
- Among the Nāyars, on the fourth, or rarely the third day after the menses, the woman has to use, during her bath, clothes supplied by Mannān females.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston - Semyon saw his wife on the fourth day.
— from Best Russian Short Stories - On the fourth day of the marriage rites, a Bhondāri (barber) is presented with some beaten rice and sugar-candy in a new earthen pot.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston - And on the fourth day, which was the thirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] when he had put his army in array, he brought it into the city.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus - it has four toes on each foot, three of which, are connected by a web, the fourth is small and placed at the heel about the 1/8 of an inch up the leg.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - CANTO THE FOURTH.
— from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron - In the end of the Fourth Act, in England; through the rest of the Play, in Scotland; and chiefly at Macbeth's Castle. ACT I. SCENE I. An open Place.
— from Macbeth by William Shakespeare - C. ] END OF ACT FOURTH.
— from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare - Every coffee house had its orator, who became to his admirers a kind of "fourth estate of the realm."
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers
