Literary notes about boor (AI summary)
The term "boor" has been used across literature to denote individuals whose coarse manners and lack of refinement starkly contrast with the ideals of cultivated society. In Proust’s work, a character is dismissed as "a stupid, ill-bred boor" [1], while Hardy introduces the "well-to-do boor" whose rough behavior disrupts social decorum [2]. The word appears both as an insult and as a character marker, serving as shorthand for vulgarity in various contexts, from the playful listing alongside clowns and scribes in Ben Jonson’s texts [3, 4] to the proverbial declaration that "a boor remains a boor, though he sleep on silken bolsters" [5]. Even in philosophical musings, as seen in William James’s work [6, 7], the boor is invoked to symbolize a fundamental and unchanging lack of sophistication. This multifaceted usage—ranging from ribbing to serious criticism—is mirrored in the recurrent appearances of the term in proverbial wisdom and narrative as a constant emblem of uncultivated behavior.
- "Heaven preserve us from him; he's too deadly for words, a stupid, ill-bred boor.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust - " She recognized in him the well-to-do boor whom Angel had knocked down at the inn for addressing her coarsely.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - SUSPENDED, held over for the present. SUTLER, victualler. SWAD, clown, boor.
— from The Alchemist by Ben Jonson - SUSPENDED, held over for the present. SUTLER, victualler. SWAD, clown, boor.
— from Every Man in His Humor by Ben Jonson - A boor remains a boor, though he sleep on silken bolsters.
— from A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs - The philosopher's logical tranquillity is thus in essence no other than the boor's.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - The boor does so immediately, and is liable at any moment to the ravages of many kinds of doubt.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James