English Synonyms and Antonyms by James Champlin Fernald (best ebook reader for laptop TXT) π
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Hence there is an important use for mere lists of classified synonyms, like Roget's Thesaurus and the works of Soule and Fallows. Not one in a thousand of average students would ever discover, by independent study of the dictionary, that there are fifteen synonyms for beautiful, twenty-one for beginning, fifteen for benevolence, twenty for friendly, and thirty-seven for pure. The mere mention of such numbers opens vistas of possible fulness, freedom, and variety of utterance, which will have for many persons the effect of a revelation.
But it is equally important to teach that synonyms are not identical and to explain why and how they differ. A person of extensive reading and study, with a fine natural sense of language, will often find all that he wants in the mere list, which recalls to his memory the appropriate word. But for the vast majority there is needed some work that compares or contrasts synonymous words, explains their differences of meaning or usage, and shows in what connections one or the other may be most fitly used. This is the purpose of the present work, to be a guide to selection from the varied treasures of English speech.
This work treats within 375 pages more than 7500 synonyms. It has been the study of the author to give every definition or distinction in the fewest possible words consistent with clearness of statement, and this not merely for economy of space, but because such condensed statements are most easily apprehended and remembered.
The method followed has been to select from every group of synonyms one word, or two contrasted words, the meaning of which[xi] may be settled by clear definitive statement, thus securing some fixed point or points to which all the other words of the group may be referred. The great source of vagueness, error, and perplexity in many discussions of synonyms is, that the writer merely associates stray ideas loosely connected with the different words, sliding from synonym to synonym with no definite point of departure or return, so that a smooth and at first sight pleasing statement really gives the mind no definite resting-place and no sure conclusion. A true discussion of synonyms is definition by comparison, and for this there must be something definite with which to compare. When the standard is settled, approximation or differentiation can be determined with clearness and certainty. It is not enough to tell something about each word. The thing to tell is how each word is related to others of that particular group. When a word has more than one prominent meaning, the synonyms for one signification are treated in one group and a reference is made to some other group in which the synonyms for another signification are treated, as may be seen by noting the synonyms given under APPARENT, and following the reference to EVIDENT.
It has been impossible within the limits of this volume to treat in full all the words of each group of synonyms. Sometimes it has been necessary to restrict the statement to a mere suggestion of the correct use; in some cases only the chief words of a group could be considered, giving the key to the discussion, and leaving the student to follow out the principle in the case of other words by reference to the definitive statements of the dictionary. It is to be hoped that at some time a dictionary of synonyms may be prepared, giving as full a list as that of Roget or of Soule, with discriminating remarks upon every word. Such a work would be of the greatest value, but obviously beyond the scope of a text-book for the class-room.
The author has here incorporated, by permission of the publishers of the Standard Dictionary, much of the synonym matter prepared by him for that work. All has been thoroughly revised or reconstructed, and much wholly new matter has been added.
The book contains also more than 3700 antonyms. These are valuable as supplying definition by contrast or by negation, one of the most effective methods of defining being in many cases to tell what a thing is not. To speakers and writers antonyms are useful as furnishing oftentimes effective antitheses.
Young writers will find much help from the indication of the correct use of prepositions, the misuse of which is one of the most[xii] common of errors, and one of the most difficult to avoid, while their right use gives to style cohesion, firmness, and compactness, and is an important aid to perspicuity. To the text of the synonyms is appended a set of Questions and Examples to adapt the work for use as a text-book. Aside from the purposes of the class-room, this portion will be found of value to the individual student. Excepting those who have made a thorough study of language most persons will discover with surprise how difficult it is to answer any set of the Questions or to fill the blanks in the Examples without referring to the synonym treatment in Part I., or to a dictionary, and how rarely they can give any intelligent reason for preference even among familiar words. There are few who can study such a work without finding occasion to correct some errors into which they have unconsciously fallen, and without coming to a new delight in the use of language from a fuller knowledge of its resources and a clearer sense of its various capabilities.
West New Brighton, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1896.
PART I.Crabb's "English Synonymes Explained." [H.]
Soule's "Dictionary of English Synonyms." [L.]
Smith's "Synonyms Discriminated." [Bell.]
Graham's "English Synonyms." [A.]
Whateley's "English Synonyms Discriminated." [L. & S.]
Campbell's "Handbook of Synonyms." [L. & S.]
Fallows' "Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms." [F. H. R.]
Roget's "Thesaurus of English Words." [F. & W. Co.]
Trench's "Study of English Words." [W. J. W.]
Richard Grant White, "Words and their Uses," and "Every Day English." [H. M. & Co.]
Geo. P. Marsh, "Lectures on the English Language," and "Origin and History of the English Language." [S.]
Fitzedward Hall, "False Philology." [S.]
Maetzner's "English Grammar," tr. by Grece. [J. M.]
The Synonyms of the Century and International Dictionaries have also been consulted and compared.
The Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary has been used as the authority throughout.
ABBREVIATIONS USED.
[1]
PART I. SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS AND PREPOSITIONS. ABANDON. Synonyms: abdicate, desert, leave, resign, abjure, discontinue, quit, retire from, cast off, forego, recant, retract, cease, forsake, relinquish, surrender, cede, forswear, renounce, vacate, depart from, give up, repudiate, withdraw from.Abandon is a word of wide signification, applying to persons or things of any kind; abdicate and resign apply to office, authority, or power; cede to territorial possessions; surrender especially to military force, and more generally to any demand, claim, passion, etc. Quit carries an idea of suddenness or abruptness not necessarily implied in abandon, and may not have the same suggestion of finality. The king abdicates his throne, cedes his territory, deserts his followers, renounces his religion, relinquishes his titles, abandons his designs. A cowardly officer deserts his ship; the helpless passengers abandon it. We quit business, give up property, resign office, abandon a habit or a trust. Relinquish commonly implies reluctance; the fainting hand relinquishes its grasp; the creditor relinquishes his claim. Abandon implies previous association with responsibility for or control of; forsake implies previous association with inclination or attachment, real or assumed; a man may abandon or forsake house or friends; he abandons an enterprise; forsakes God. Abandon is applied to both good and evil action; a thief abandons his designs, a man his principles. Forsake, like abandon, may be used either in the favorable or unfavorable sense; desert is always unfavorable,[2] involving a breach of duty, except when used of mere localities; as, "the Deserted Village." While a monarch abdicates, a president or other elected or appointed officer resigns. It was held that James II. abdicated his throne by deserting it.
Antonyms: adopt, defend, occupy, seek, advocate, favor, prosecute, support, assert, haunt, protect, undertake, cherish, hold, pursue, uphold, claim, keep, retain, vindicate. court, maintain, ABASE. Synonyms: bring low, depress, dishonor, lower, cast down, discredit, humble, reduce, debase, disgrace, humiliate, sink. degrade,Abase refers only to outward conditions. "Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high." Ezek. xxi, 26. Debase applies to quality or character. The coinage is debased by excess of alloy, the man by vice. Humble in present use refers chiefly to feeling of heart; humiliate to outward conditions; even when one is said to humble himself, he either has or affects to have humility of heart. To disgrace may be to bring or inflict odium upon others, but the word is chiefly and increasingly applied to such moral odium as one by his own acts brings upon himself; the noun disgrace retains more of the passive sense than the verb; he disgraced himself by his conduct; he brought disgrace upon his family. To dishonor a person is to deprive him of honor that should or might be given. To discredit one is to injure his reputation, as for veracity or solvency. A sense of unworthiness humbles; a shameful insult humiliates; imprisonment for crime disgraces. Degrade may refer to either station or character. An officer is degraded by being reduced to the ranks, disgraced by cowardice; vile practises degrade; drunkenness is a degrading vice. Misfortune or injustice may abase the good; nothing but their own ill-doing can debase or disgrace them.
Antonyms: advance, elevate, honor, raise, aggrandize, exalt, promote, uplift. dignify,[3]
ABASH. Synonyms: bewilder, daunt, embarrass, mortify, chagrin, discompose, humble, overawe, confound, disconcert, humiliate, shame. confuse, dishearten,Any sense of inferiority abashes, with or without the sense of wrong. The poor are abashed at the splendor of wealth, the ignorant at the learning of the wise. "I might have been abashed by their authority." Gladstone Homeric Synchron., p. 72. [H. '76.] To confuse is to bring into a state of mental bewilderment; to confound is to overwhelm the mental faculties; to daunt is to subject to a certain degree of fear. Embarrass is a strong word, signifying primarily hamper, hinder, impede. A solitary thinker may be confused by some difficulty in a subject, or some mental defect; one is embarrassed in the presence of others, and because of their presence. Confusion is of the intellect, embarrassment of the feelings. A witness may be embarrassed by annoying personalities, so as to become confused in statements. To mortify a person is to bring upon him a painful sense of humiliation, whether because of his own or another's fault or failure. A pupil is confused by a perplexing question, a general confounded by overwhelming defeat. A hostess is discomposed by the tardiness of guests, a speaker disconcerted by a failure of memory. The criminal who is not abashed at detection may be daunted by the officer's weapon. Sudden joy may bewilder, but will not abash. The true worshiper is humbled rather than
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