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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prudence? 5. How do foresight and forethought compare with each other, and both with providence? EXAMPLES.

When desp'rate ills demand a speedy cure,
Distrust is cowardice, and —— folly.

With a —— unknown in other parts of Scotland, the peasantry have in most places planted orchards around their cottages.

PURCHASE (page 295). QUESTIONS.

1. From what language is purchase derived? 2. From what is buy derived? 3. How do buy and purchase agree in meaning? What single definition would answer for either? 4. How do buy and purchase differ in use? Give instances.

EXAMPLES.

I'll give thee England's treasure,
Enough to —— such another island,
So thou wilt make me live.

'Tis gold which ——s admittance.

—— the truth, and sell it not.

[488]

PURE (page 296). QUESTIONS.

1. What does pure signify? 2. In what sense are material substances said to be pure? 3. What does pure denote in moral and religious use? 4. How does pure compare with innocent? with virtuous?

EXAMPLES.

Water from melted snow is ——r than rain-water, as it descends through the air in a solid form, incapable of absorbing atmospheric gases.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds —— and quiet take
That for a hermitage.

In every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a —— offering, saith the Lord of hosts.

QUEER (page 297). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of odd? singular? Are odd and singular precise equivalents? 2. When is a thing called strange? 3. What is the primary meaning of peculiar? With what implication is it now commonly used? 4. What is the meaning of eccentric? How does it differ in use from odd or queer? 5. How does erratic compare with eccentric? 6. What is the primary meaning of queer? its common meaning? 7. What is the significance of quaint? grotesque?

EXAMPLES.

A ——, shy man was this pastor—a sort of living mummy, dried up and bleached by Icelandic snows.

In setting a hen, says Grose, the good women hold it an indispensable rule to put an —— number of eggs.

Only a man of undoubted genius can afford to be ——.

The —— architecture of these medieval towns has a strange fascination.

QUICKEN (page 297). QUESTIONS.

1. What is it to accelerate? to despatch? 2. What does the verb speed signify? hasten? hurry? What does hurry suggest in addition to the meaning of hasten?

EXAMPLES.

The motion of a falling body is continually ——ed.

The muster-place is Lanrick mead!
—— forth the signal! Norman, ——!

The pulsations of the heart are ——ed by exertion.

QUOTE (page 298). QUESTIONS.

1. How does cite differ from quote? 2. What is it to paraphrase? to plagiarize?[489]

EXAMPLES.

A great man —— bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word as good.

The Devil can —— Scripture for his purpose.

To appropriate others' thoughts or words mechanically and without credit is to ——.

RACY (page 299). QUESTIONS.

1. To what does racy in the first instance refer? pungent? 2. How does piquant differ from pungent? 3. How are these words and the word spicy used in reference to literary products?

EXAMPLES.

Pure mother English, —— and fresh with idiomatic graces.

The atmosphere was strangely impregnated with the —— odor of burning peat.

The spruce, the cedar, and the juniper, with their balsamic breath, filled the air with a —— fragrance.

RADICAL (page 299). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the primary meaning of radical? 2. What contrasted senses are derived from this primary meaning?

EXAMPLES.

Timidity is a —— defect in a reformer.

Social and political leaders look to vested interests, and hence are inclined to regard all —— measures as ——.

RARE (page 300). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of unique? Can any one of a number of things of the same kind be unique? 2. What is the primary meaning of rare? What added sense is often blended with this primary meaning? 3. Is extraordinary favorable or unfavorable in meaning?

EXAMPLES.

Nothing is so —— as time.

That which gives to the Jews their —— position among the nations is what we are accustomed to regard as their sacred history.

And what is so —— as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days.
REACH (page 300). QUESTIONS.

1. What is it to reach in the sense here considered? 2. What is it to arrive? 3. What does attain add to the meaning of arrive? What does gain add?[490]

EXAMPLES.

And grasping down the boughs
I ——ed the shore.

He gathered the ripe nuts in the fall,
And berries that grew by fence and wall
So high she could not —— them at all.

The heights by great men ——ed and kept
Were not ——ed by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

It is only in this way that we can hope to —— at truth.

REAL (page 301). QUESTIONS.

1. From what is real derived? What does it mean? 2. From what is the real distinguished? 3. To what is actual opposed? 4. What shades of difference may be pointed out between the four words actual, real, developed, and positive?

EXAMPLES.

In —— life we do not die when all that makes life bright dies to us.

If there was any trouble, —— or impending, affecting those she had served, her place was with them.

This was regarded as proof —— of conspiracy.

REASON, v. (page 302). QUESTIONS.

1. What is it to reason about a matter? 2. From what is argue derived, and what does it mean? 3. What is it to demonstrate? to prove? How do these two words agree and differ?

EXAMPLES.

There are two ways of reaching truth: by ——ing it out and by feeling it out.

In ——ing, too, the person owned his skill,
For e'en tho vanquished, he could —— still.

A matter of fact may be ——ed by adequate evidence; only a mathematical proposition can be ——ed.

REASON, n. (page 302). QUESTIONS.

1. How does cause differ from reason in the strict sense of each of the two words? 2. How is reason often used so as to be a partial equivalent of cause?

EXAMPLES.

No one is at liberty to speak ill of another without a justifiable ——, even tho he knows he is speaking truth.

I am not only witty myself, but the —— that wit is in other men.

Necessity is the —— of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

Alas! how light a —— may move
Dissension between hearts that love!

[491]

REASONING (page 303). QUESTIONS.

1. What do argumentation and debate ordinarily imply? 2. How does reasoning differ from both the above words in this respect? 3. To what kind of reasoning were argument and argumentation formerly restricted? How widely are the words now applied? 4. How do argument and argumentation compare with reasoning as regards logical form?

EXAMPLES.

All ——, Inductive or Deductive, is a reaching of the unknown through the known; and where nothing unknown is reached there is no ——.

Early at Bus'ness, and at Hazard late,
Mad at a fox-chase, wise at a ——.

If thou continuest to take delight in idle ——, thou mayest be qualified to combat with the sophists, but never know how to live with men.

REFINEMENT (page 305). QUESTIONS.

1. To what does civilization apply, and what does it denote? 2. What is refinement? 3. What is the primary meaning of cultivation? the derived meaning? 4. By what word is cultivation now largely superseded? 5. What does culture denote?

EXAMPLES.

What is ——? It is the humanization of man in society, the satisfaction for him in society of the true law of human nature.

Giving up wrong pleasure is not self-sacrifice, but self-——.

This refined taste is the consequence of education and habit; we are born only with a capacity of entertaining this ——.

RELIABLE (page 306). QUESTIONS.

1. What is to be said of the controversy regarding the formation and use of the word reliable? 2. What do trusty and trustworthy denote? 3. How does reliable compare with these words? 4. What meaning may reliable convey that trusty and trustworthy would not?

EXAMPLES.

Good lack! quoth he, yet bring it me
My leathern belt likewise,
In which I bear my —— sword,
When I do exercise.

The first voyage to America, of which we have any perfectly —— account, was performed by the Norsemen.

RELIGION (page 307). QUESTIONS.

1. What is the original sense of piety? the derived sense? 2. What is religion?[492] What does it include? 3. What is worship? devotion? 4. What is morality? godliness? holiness? 5. How is theology related to religion?

EXAMPLES.

—— is man's belief in a being or beings, mightier than himself and inaccessible to his senses, but not indifferent to his sentiments and actions, with the feelings and practises which flow from such belief.

——, whose soul sincere
Fears God, and knows no other fear.

To deny the freedom of the will is to make —— impossible.

Systematic —— may be defined as the substance of the Christian faith in a scientific form.

REND (page 309). QUESTIONS.

1. To what are rend and tear usually applied? Which is the stronger word? 2. In what connection is rive used, and in what sense? 3. What does lacerate signify? 4. How does mangle compare with lacerate? 5. What do burst and rupture signify? Which is the stronger word? When is a steam-boiler said to be ruptured? 6. What does rip signify?

EXAMPLES.

Storms do not —— the sail that is furled.

Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow —— a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings.

And now a bubble ——s, and now a world.

The first blood shed in the revolutionary struggle; a mere drop in amount, but a deluge in its effects, ——ing the colonies forever from the mother country.

RENOUNCE (page 309). QUESTIONS.

1. From what is renounce derived, and in what sense used? recant? retract? 2. What is it to discard? 3. How does revoke compare with recall in original meaning and in present use? 4. What is the derivation and the distinctive meaning of abjure? 5. In what sense is repudiate used?

EXAMPLES.

On his knees, with his hand on the Bible, Galileo was compelled to —— and curse the doctrine of the movement of the earth.

He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, —— earth to forfeit heaven.

He had no spiritual adviser, no human comforter, and was entirely in the hands of those who were determined that he should —— or die.

REPENTANCE (page 310). QUESTIONS.

1. What is regret? 2. What does penitence add to regret? 3. How does repentance surpass the meaning of penitence, regret, sorrow, etc.? 4. What is compunction?[493] contrition? 5. What is remorse, and how does it compare with repentance?

EXAMPLES.

What then? what rests?
Try what —— can: what can it not?

Forgive me, Valentine, if hearty ——
Be a sufficient ransom for offense,
I tender't here.

So writhes the mind —— has riven,
Unmeet for earth, undoomed to heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death.
REPROOF (page 311). QUESTIONS.

1. Are blame, censure, and disapproval spoken or silent?

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