Literary notes about ineffable (AI summary)
The term "ineffable" frequently connotes a quality so sublime, mysterious, or transcendent that words fall short of capturing its essence. In literature, it is often employed to describe feelings and experiences that are deeply spiritual or overwhelmingly emotional, such as the divine goodness that grants eternal rest ([1]) or the tender embrace of joyful sentiment ([2]). It also appears in the portrayal of personal traits and attitudes, ranging from the deep, mysterious sorrow felt by a character ([3]) to a contempt so profound it defies ordinary description ([4], [5]). Moreover, "ineffable" is used in both exalted contexts—such as representing sacred names and divine attributes ([6], [7])—and in more human, relatable moments of overwhelming satisfaction or desire ([8], [9]). Through these varied instances, writers signal that the ineffable remains beyond the limits of language, residing instead in the realm of the profoundly felt and the eternally mysterious.
- In the contemplation of the ineffable Goodness she finds her everlasting occupation, and her eternal rest.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - Locked in his embrace, she spoke thus, and cast back her head, seeking an assent to her words in his eyes—they were sparkling with ineffable delight.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirits, and filled my heart with ineffable sadness.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - Miss Squeers made no more direct reply than surveying her former friend from top to toe, and elevating her nose in the air with ineffable disdain.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - "Or a haughty gentleman of HIM?" cries mademoiselle, referring to Sir Leicester with ineffable disdain.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - "The sacred words were intrusted to him, of which the Ineffable Tetractys, or name of God, was the chief.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - It was in form a perfect cube, and had inscribed upon its upper face, within a delta or triangle, the sacred tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction, as if her cup of happiness were now full.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - I am moved to pleasure by visions of ineffable beauty which I have never beheld in the physical world.
— from The World I Live In by Helen Keller
