Literary notes about freak (AI summary)
The term “freak” assumes a multifaceted role in literature, often conveying notions of unexpected, anomalous occurrence alongside personal or physical strangeness. In some contexts, it denotes an unpredictable twist of fate or nature—a “freak of fate” or “freak of fortune” that upends the normal course of events [1], [2], [3]. In other instances, it characterizes a person or a behavior, marking someone as peculiar or deviating from societal norms, whether with idiosyncratic physical traits or whimsical decisions born out of a momentary whim, as seen in references to an oddity in character or a childish caprice [4], [5], [6]. Across its varied uses, the word encapsulates both the marvel of the unusual and the cautionary hue of the inexplicable.
- But a freak of fate made the impossible possible.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - It was a strange freak of fortune that placed him at the very outset of his career within sight of the theatre of his most famous victories.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - It was as if Nature had endeavoured in some wickedly mischievous freak to show how beauty and ugliness can be combined in one creature.
— from The Rayner-Slade Amalgamation by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher - You aren’t pure, you’re just a freak, a queer fellow, a funny growth... TROFIMOV.
— from Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Then, in pursuance of a childish freak, she dressed herself in her mother's laces and ribbons.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - CYRANO: And I,--because by Nature's freak I have The gift to say--all that perchance you feel.
— from Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
