Literary notes about unadulterated (AI summary)
The term “unadulterated” is often employed to underline a sense of purity, rawness, or an unmodified state in literature. Writers use it to signal that something is presented in its most genuine, untainted form—whether describing an emotion, a substance, or even an abstract quality. It spotlights the contrast between what is pure and what has been diluted or corrupted, as seen when wit is depicted as unalloyed and direct [1] or when love is portrayed as utterly sincere [2]. At times, the word emphasizes a tangible quality, such as in discussions of materials that must remain free from interference [3] or beverages that ought to be consumed in their pure, unblended state [4]. Equally, its use in describing horror [5] or dismay [6] serves to magnify the intensity of those experiences. Overall, “unadulterated” functions as a powerful intensifier, calling attention to authenticity and unspoiled essence throughout literary narratives.
- But Mark Twain was capable of wit, pure and unadulterated, curt and concise.
— from Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson - Is it sheer love of their species, and an unadulterated wish to see young people happy and dancing?
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - In the first place, the oil must be pure mineral, unadulterated with either animal or vegetable oils, and must have been washed free from acid.
— from Steam Turbines A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers by Hubert E. (Hubert Edwin) Collins - The third is good drink—good, unadulterated beer, and plenty of it.
— from All Sorts and Conditions of Men: An Impossible Story by Walter Besant - The creature was a monstrous millipede, forty feet in length, with features of purest, unadulterated horror.
— from The Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster - and, Sir, I gave a gasp of unadulterated dismay!
— from Castles in the Air by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness
