Literary notes about pertinacious (AI summary)
Literary authors employ “pertinacious” to underscore a quality of relentless persistence that may be either admirable or obstinate. The term appears when describing determined characters—a steadfast, insistent youth who “never came in this manner” [1] or a man noted for his unyielding resolve in battle and debate [2, 3]. It also vividly portrays natural or inanimate phenomena, as with the “pertinacious ticking” of a watch that echoes the passage of time [4, 5]. At times, writers use it to characterize unwavering adherence to opinions or hopes, as when a character’s “pertinacious hopes” fuel their ambitious desires [6] or when a firm opinion persists despite ample argument [7]. This layered use reinforces themes of tenacity and unrelenting will in both character and circumstance.
- “But Richelieu never came in this manner,” said the pertinacious boy.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - "Sure," said he, "you are the most pertinacious fellow.
— from The Watchers: A Novel by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason - He was resolute and extremely pertinacious in conducting the most difficult and even apparently doomed operations.
— from The Russian Turmoil; Memoirs: Military, Social, and Political by Anton Ivanovich Denikin - This clamor of the wind through the lonely house; the Judge's quietude, as he sits invisible; and that pertinacious ticking of his watch!...
— from The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I - This clamor of the wind through the lonely house; the Judge's quietude, as he sits invisible; and that pertinacious ticking of his watch!
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - Had I forgotten my own prospects, my ardent love, my pertinacious hopes?
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - The question therefore was, after a good deal of pertinacious argument on both sides—which of the two impressions was the more ancient?
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
