Literary notes about save (AI summary)
In literary passages, “save” operates in multiple ways to enhance expression. In some contexts it functions as a preposition meaning “except,” as when a character possesses nothing save a few humble belongings [1] or when a narrative excludes all but a specific detail from a scene [2]. In other instances it appears as a verb connoting rescue or preservation, evident in urgent appeals like “The Lord save us” [3] or earnest vows to protect life itself [4]. This flexibility—ranging from denotation of exclusion to a call for deliverance—allows writers to impart both precision and dramatic intensity to their language.
- Then one fine day in early spring he found himself with not a penny left, and no property save the clothes he wore.
— from The Aesop for Children by Aesop - These articles, with two small wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room, save for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre.
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - “The Lord save us, but what things you say!”
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol - Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us!”
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
