Literary notes about polar (AI summary)
Writers employ the word "polar" to evoke both stark physical landscapes and abstract notions of extremity and guidance. In narratives that describe remote, icy climes, it marks the boundary of known existence—touching the polar circle or depicting the wanderings of creatures like the polar bear ([1], [2], [3])—while also representing fixed points of direction, as when a "polar star" guides a soul or signals destiny ([4], [5]). In works that embrace technical precision, "polar" appears in contexts ranging from coordinates and orbits to magnetic fields, underscoring its versatility in bridging natural detail with scientific accuracy ([6], [7], [8]).
- The climate is not so bad as might be expected, seeing that the island touches the polar circle, the mean temperature at Reykjavik being 39 degrees.
— from The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga); with Excerpts from the Poetic Edda - Heavy mittens for the winter are made of the fur of the polar bear or of dogskin.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The polar bear and the walrus | live and thrive in the Arctic regions.
— from An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises by Frank Edgar Farley and George Lyman Kittredge - I have just gazed my supreme farewell at your beautiful house, which has so long been to me the polar star of my heart’s wanderings.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - Duncan had no other guide than a distant glimmering light, which served, however, the office of a polar star to the lover.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - coordinates, ordinate and abscissa, polar coordinates, latitude and longitude, declination and right ascension, altitude and azimuth.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - Analogous considerations for polar co-ordinates.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - They were placed in near-polar orbits by reliable Thor-Delta launch vehicles.
— from Rockets, Missiles, and Spacecraft of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
