Literary notes about sinew (AI summary)
The term sinew in literature carries a rich duality of meaning. On one hand, it denotes the literal tendons that bind muscles—a substance of physical strength and resilience, as seen in depictions of robust human or animal bodies ([1], [2], [3]). On the other hand, writers frequently employ sinew metaphorically to signify the essential connective force that underpins and reinforces abstract concepts. For example, it is used to evoke the very substance of genius or societal strength, as when it is described as “the sinew of true genius” or the binding force that holds a nation together ([4], [5]). Moreover, sinew appears in technical and practical contexts, such as in the lashing of tools, weapons, or structures, emphasizing its role as a crucial element in construction and repair ([6], [7]). In all these ways, sinew enriches literary imagery by seamlessly merging the tangible with the symbolic.
- He was a mass of bone and sinew, splendidly formed and supple as a young panther.
— from Frank Merriwell's Races by Burt L. Standish - His duck trousers, fitting tightly over the hips, display a pair of limbs supple and muscular, with thighs that seem all sinew from skin to bone.
— from The Flag of Distress: A Story of the South Sea by Mayne Reid - I noticed his hands, dirty, with long nails; they were merely bone and sinew, large and strong; but I had forgotten that they were so shapely.
— from The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - Virtue, (such imagining, then, seem'd conscious to the soul of the dreamer,) is ever the sinew of true genius.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - Trade must flourish, and money is its main sinew."
— from The Works of Honoré de Balzac: About Catherine de' Medici, Seraphita, and Other Stories by Honoré de Balzac - 118 a , 118 b , represent these two knives (89580 [1062], 89586 [1061]), which have the blades lashed on with deer sinew.
— from The United States Bill of Rights The Ten Original Amendments to the Constitution of the United States by United States - The haft is of the common pattern and attached as usual, the lashing being made of very stout sinew braid.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
