English Synonyms and Antonyms by James Champlin Fernald (best ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📕

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is one of the most 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

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injustice, and employ speech only to —— their thoughts.

Ye little stars! —— your diminished rays.

HIGH (page 198). QUESTIONS.

1. What kind of a term is high? What does it signify? Give instances of the relative[447] use of the word. 2. How does high compare with deep? To what objects may these words be severally applied? 3. What is the special significance of tall? 4. What element does lofty add to the meaning of high or tall? 5. How do elevated and eminent compare in the literal sense? in the figurative? 6. How do the words above mentioned compare with exalted? 7. What contrasted uses has high in the figurative sense? 8. What is towering in the literal, and in the figurative sense?

EXAMPLES.

A pillar'd shade, —— overarched, and echoing walks between.

A daughter of the gods, divinely —— and most divinely fair.

What is that which the breeze on the —— steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

He knew
Himself to sing, and build the —— rime.
HINDER (page 199). QUESTIONS.

1. What is it to hinder? 2. How does hinder differ from delay? 3. How does hinder compare with prevent? 4. What is the meaning of retard? 5. What is it to obstruct? to resist? How do these two words compare with each other?

EXAMPLES.

—— the Devil, and he will flee from you.

My tears must stop, for every drop
—— my needle and thread.

It is the study of mankind to —— that advance of age or death which can not be ——.

HISTORY (page 200). QUESTIONS.

1. What is history? How does it relate events? To what class of events does it apply? 2. How does history differ from annals or chronicles?

EXAMPLES.

Happy the people whose —— are dulled.

—— is little else than a picture of human crimes and misfortunes.

—— is philosophy teaching by example.

HOLY (page 200). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of sacred? 2. How does it compare with holy? 3. Which term do we apply directly to God? 4. In what sense is divine loosely used? What is its more appropriate sense?

EXAMPLES.

The —— time is quiet as a nun breathless with adoration.

A —— burden is this life ye bear.

All sects and churches of Christendom hold to some form of the doctrine of the —— inspiration of the Christian Scriptures.

[448]

HOME (page 201). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the general sense of abode, dwelling, and habitation? What difference is there in the use of these words? 2. From what language is home derived? What is its distinctive meaning?

EXAMPLES.

An —— giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

The attempt to abolish the ideal woman and keep the ideal —— is a predestinated failure.

A house without love may be a castle or a palace, but it is not a ——.

Love is the life of a true ——.

HONEST (page 202). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of honest in ordinary use? 2. What is the meaning of honorable? 3. How will the merely honest and the truly honorable man differ in action? 4. What is honest in the highest and fullest sense? How, in this sense, does it differ from honorable?

EXAMPLES.

—— labor bears a lovely face.

An —— man's the noblest work of God.

No form of pure, undisguised murder will be any longer allowed to confound itself with the necessities of —— warfare.

HORIZONTAL (page 202). QUESTIONS.

1. What does horizontal signify? How does it compare with level? 2. From what language is flat derived? 3. What is its original meaning? its most common present sense? In what derived sense is it often used? 4. What are the senses of plain and plane?

EXAMPLES.

Sun and moon were in the —— sea sunk.

Ample spaces o'er the smooth and —— pavement.

The prominent lines in Greek architecture were ——, and not vertical.

HUNT (page 203). QUESTIONS.

1. What is a hunt? 2. For what is a chase or pursuit conducted? a search? 3. What does hunt ordinarily include? 4. Is it correct to use hunt when search only is contemplated? 5. How are these words used in the figurative senses?[449]

EXAMPLES.

Among the inalienable rights of man are life, liberty, and the —— of happiness.

All things have an end, and so did our —— for lodgings.

The —— formed the principal amusement of our Norman kings, who for that purpose retained in their possession forests in every part of the kingdom.

The —— is up, but they shall know
The stag at bay's a dangerous foe.
HYPOCRISY (page 204). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is pretense derived, and what does it signify? 2. What is hypocrisy? 3. What is cant? sanctimoniousness? 4. What is pietism? formalism? sham? 5. How does affectation compare with hypocrisy?

EXAMPLES.

Let not the Trojans, with a feigned —— of proffered peace, delude the Latian prince.

—— is a fawning and flexible art, which accommodates itself to human feelings, and flatters the weakness of men in order that it may gain its own ends.

HYPOCRITE (page 204). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is hypocrite derived? What is its primary meaning? 2. What common term includes the other words of the group? 3. How are hypocrite and dissembler contrasted with each other? 4. What element is common to the cheat and the impostor? How do the two compare with each other?

EXAMPLES.

It is the weakest sort of politicians that are the greatest ——.

I dare swear he is no —— but prays from his heart.

In the reign of Henry VII., an ——, named Perkin Warbeck, laid claim to the English crown.

HYPOTHESIS (page 205). QUESTIONS.

1. What is a hypothesis? What is its use in scientific investigation and study? 2. What is a guess? a conjecture? a supposition? a surmise? 3. What implication does surmise ordinarily convey? What is a theory? a scheme? a speculation? How do they differ?

EXAMPLES.

——, fancies, built on nothing firm.

There are no other limits to —— than those of the human mind.

The development ——, tho widely accepted by men of science fails of proof at many important points.

IDEA (page 206). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is idea derived, and what did it originally mean? 2. What[450] did idea signify in early philosophical use? 3. What is its present popular use, and with what words is it now synonymous?

EXAMPLES.

All rests with those who read. A work or ——
Is what each makes it to himself.

He who comes up to his own —— of greatness must always have had a very low standard of it in his mind.

IDEAL (page 206). QUESTIONS.

1. What is an ideal? 2. What is an archetype? a prototype? 3. Can a prototype be equivalent to an archetype? 4. Is an ideal primal, or the result of development? 5. What is an original? 6. What is the standard? How does it compare with the ideal? 7. How are idea and ideal contrasted?

EXAMPLES.

Be a —— to others and then all will go well.

The mind's the —— of the man.

Every man has at times in his mind the —— of what he should be, but is not.

IDIOCY (page 207). QUESTIONS.

1. What is idiocy? 2. What is imbecility? How does it compare with idiocy? 3. How does insanity differ from idiocy or imbecility? 4. How do folly and foolishness compare with idiocy? 5. What is fatuity? stupidity?

EXAMPLES.

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis —— to be wise.

To expect an effect without a cause, or attainment without application, is little less than ——.

IDLE (page 208). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is idle derived, and what is its original meaning? 2. What does idle in present use properly denote? Does it necessarily denote the absence of all action? 3. What does lazy signify? How does it differ from idle? 4. What does inert signify? sluggish? 5. In what realm does slothful belong, and what does it denote? 6. How does indolent compare with slothful?

EXAMPLES.

The —— stream was covered with a green scum.

Never —— a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others.

As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the —— turn upon his bed.

IGNORANT (page 208). QUESTIONS.

1. What does ignorant signify? How wide is its range? 2. What is the meaning of illiterate? 3. How does unlettered compare with illiterate?

EXAMPLES.

So foolish was I and ——; I was as a beast before thee.

A boy is better unborn than ——.

[451]

IMAGINATION (page 209). QUESTIONS.

1. Into what two parts was imagination divided in the old psychology? 2. What name is now preferably given to the so-called Reproductive Imagination by President Porter and others? 3. What is fantasy or phantasy? In what mental actions is it manifested? 4. What is fantasy in ordinary usage? 5. How is imagination defined? fancy? 6. To what faculty of the mind do both of these activities or powers belong? 7. In what other respects do imagination and fancy agree? What is the one great distinction between them? How do they respectively treat the material objects or images with which they deal? Which power finds use in philosophy, science, and mechanical invention, and how?

EXAMPLES.

While ——, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

And as —— bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
IMMEDIATELY (page 211). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the primary meaning of immediately? Its meaning as an adverb of time? 2. What did by and by formerly signify? What is its present meaning? 3. What did directly formerly signify, and what does it now commonly mean? 4. What change has presently undergone? 5. Is immediately losing anything of its force? What words now seem more emphatic?

EXAMPLES.

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal —— does always last.

Let us go up ——, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

Obey me ——!

IMMERSE (page 212). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is dip derived? from what immerse? 2. How do the two words differ in dignity? How as to the completeness of the action? How as to the continuance of the object in or under the liquid? 3. Which word is preferably used as to the rite of baptism? 4. What does submerge imply? 5. What are douse and duck? 6. What special sense has dip which the other words do not share?

EXAMPLES.

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past —— its dead.

The ships of war, Congress and Cumberland, were —— by the Merrimac.

When food can not be swallowed, life may be prolonged by —— the body in nutritive fluids.

[452]

IMMINENT (page 212). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is imminent derived and with what primary sense? impending? 2. How do imminent and impending differ in present use? 3. How does threatening differ from the two words above given?

EXAMPLES.

And nodding Ilium waits the —— fall.

And these she does apply for warnings, portents,
And evils ——.
IMPEDIMENT (page 213). QUESTIONS.

1. What does impediment primarily signify? obstacle? obstruction? 2. How does obstacle differ from obstruction? 3. What is a hindrance? 4. Is an impediment what one finds or what he carries? Is it momentary or constant? What did the Latin impedimenta signify? 5. What is an encumbrance?

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