A passion for books and the words inside them saved me from ever knowing a moment’s loneliness during library hours.
-- The Power of Words by Benita Porter
What do I have to pick up for the ‘ever’ on OALD or Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary?
asked Aug 30, 2013 at 23:53
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1If "saved me from ever knowing" was rewritten as "meant that I never knew", would you understand? :)– WendiKiddCommented Aug 31, 2013 at 0:11
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1 Answer
Ever means "always", or "for the entirety of time".
Consequently
A passion for books and the words inside them saved me from ever knowing a moment’s loneliness.
means that "A passion for books and the words inside them" are responsible for the author never "knowing a moment's loneliness".
The sentence then ends with an additional time constraint:
A passion for books and the words inside them saved me from ever knowing a moment’s loneliness during library hours.
What this caveat does is it constrains "never" to mean "whilst the library was open".
So in conclusion, the sentence as a whole means that whilst the library was open for business, "a passion for books and the words inside them" saved the author from "knowing a moment's loneliness".
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One way to rephrase this: "Because I was passionate about books, I never (not even for a moment) felt lonely during library hours." Commented Mar 17, 2014 at 17:44