English Synonyms and Antonyms - James Champlin Fernald (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗

the verb beran, bear) is what one has to bear, and the word is used always of that which is borne by a living agent. A load (from the Anglo-Saxon[234] lād, a way, course, carrying, or carriage) is what is laid upon a person, animal, or vehicle for conveyance, or what is customarily so imposed; as, a two-horse load. Weight measures the pressure due to gravity; the same weight that one finds a moderate load when in his full strength becomes a heavy burden in weariness or weakness. A ship's load is called distinctively a cargo, or it may be known as freight or lading. Freight denotes merchandise in or for transportation and is used largely of transportation or of merchandise transported by rail, which is, in commercial language, said to be "shipped." A load to be fastened upon a horse or mule is called a pack, and the animal is known as a pack-horse or pack-mule. LOCK. Synonyms: bar, catch, fastening, hook, bolt, clasp, hasp, latch.

A bar is a piece of wood or metal, usually of considerable size, by which an opening is obstructed, a door held fast, etc. A bar may be movable or permanent; a bolt is a movable rod or pin of metal, sliding in a socket and adapted for securing a door or window. A lock is an arrangement by which an enclosed bolt is shot forward or backward by a key, or other device; the bolt is the essential part of the lock. A latch or catch is an accessible fastening designed to be easily movable, and simply to secure against accidental opening of the door, cover, etc. A hasp is a metallic strap that fits over a staple, calculated to be secured by a padlock; a simple hook that fits into a staple is also called a hasp. A clasp is a fastening that can be sprung into place, to draw and hold the parts of some enclosing object firmly together, as the clasp of a book.

LOOK. Synonyms: behold, discern, inspect, see, view, contemplate, gaze, regard, stare, watch. descry, glance, scan, survey,

To see is simply to become conscious of an object of vision; to look is to make a conscious and direct endeavor to see. To behold is to fix the sight and the mind with distinctness and consideration upon something that has come to be clearly before the eyes. We may look without seeing, as in pitch-darkness, and we may see without looking, as in case of a flash of lightning. To gaze is to[235] look intently, long, and steadily upon an object. To glance is to look casually or momentarily. To stare is to look with a fixed intensity such as is the effect of surprise, alarm, or rudeness. To scan is to look at minutely, to note every visible feature. To inspect is to go below the surface, uncover, study item by item. View and survey are comprehensive, survey expressing the greater exactness of measurement or estimate. Watch brings in the element of time and often of wariness; we watch for a movement or change, a signal, the approach of an enemy, etc. Compare APPEAR.

LOVE. Synonyms: affection, charity, friendship, regard, attachment, devotion, liking, tenderness. attraction, fondness,

Affection is kindly feeling, deep, tender, and constant, going out to some person or object, being less fervent and ardent than love, whether applied to persons or things. Love is an intense and absorbing emotion, drawing one toward a person or object and causing one to appreciate, delight in, and crave the presence or possession of the person or object loved, and to desire to please and benefit the person, or to advance the cause, truth, or other object of affection; it is the yearning or outgoing of soul toward something that is regarded as excellent, beautiful, or desirable; love may be briefly defined as strong and absorbing affection for and attraction toward a person or object. Love may denote the sublimest and holiest spiritual affection as when we are taught that "God is love." Charity has so far swung aside from this original meaning that probably it never can be recalled (compare BENEVOLENCE). The Revised Version uses love in place of charity in 1 Cor. xiii, and elsewhere. Love is more intense, absorbing, and tender than friendship, more intense, impulsive, and perhaps passionate than affection; we speak of fervent love, but of deep or tender affection, or of close, firm, strong friendship. Love is used specifically for personal affection between the sexes in the highest sense, the love that normally leads to marriage, and subsists throughout all happy wedded life. Love can never properly denote mere animal passion, which is expressed by such words as appetite, desire, lust. One may properly be said to have love for animals, for inanimate objects, or for abstract qualities that enlist the affections, as we speak of love for a horse or a dog, for mountains,[236] woods, ocean, or of love of nature, and love of virtue. Love of articles of food is better expressed by liking, as love, in its full sense, expresses something spiritual and reciprocal, such as can have no place in connection with objects that minister merely to the senses. Compare ATTACHMENT; FRIENDSHIP.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for ANTIPATHY; ENMITY; HATRED.

Prepositions:

Love of country; for humanity; love to God and man.

MAKE. Synonyms: become, constrain, fabricate, manufacture, bring about, construct, fashion, occasion, bring into being, create, force, perform, bring to pass, do, frame, reach, cause, effect, get, render, compel, establish, make out, require, compose, execute, make up, shape. constitute,

Make is essentially causative; to the idea of cause all its various senses may be traced (compare synonyms for CAUSE). To make is to cause to exist, or to cause to exist in a certain form or in certain relations; the word thus includes the idea of create, as in Gen. i, 31, "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Make includes also the idea of compose, constitute; as, the parts make up the whole. Similarly, to cause a voluntary agent to do a certain act is to make him do it, or compel him to do it, compel fixing the attention more on the process, make on the accomplished fact. Compare COMPEL; DO; INFLUENCE; (make better) AMEND; (make haste) QUICKEN; (make known) ANNOUNCE; AVOW; CONFESS; (make prisoner) ARREST; (make up) ADD; (make void) CANCEL.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for ABOLISH; BREAK; DEMOLISH.

Prepositions:

Make of, out of, or from certain materials, into a certain form, for a certain purpose or person; made with hands, by hand; made by a prisoner, with a jack-knife.

MARRIAGE. Synonyms: conjugal union, espousals, nuptials, spousals, wedding, espousal, matrimony, spousal, union, wedlock.

Matrimony denotes the state of those who are united in the[237] relation of husband and wife; marriage denotes primarily the act of so uniting, but is extensively used for the state as well. Wedlock, a word of specific legal use, is the Saxon term for the state or relation denoted by matrimony. Wedding denotes the ceremony, with any attendant festivities, by which two persons are united as husband and wife, nuptials being the more formal and stately term to express the same idea.

Antonyms: bachelorhood, celibacy, divorce, maidenhood, virginity, widowhood. Prepositions:

Marriage of or between two persons; of one person to or with another; among the Greeks.

MASCULINE. Synonyms: male, manful, manlike, manly, mannish, virile.

We apply male to the sex, masculine to the qualities, especially to the stronger, hardier, and more imperious qualities that distinguish the male sex; as applied to women, masculine has often the depreciatory sense of unwomanly, rude, or harsh; as, a masculine face or voice, or the like; tho one may say in a commendatory way, she acted with masculine courage or decision. Manlike may mean only having the outward appearance or semblance of a man, or may be closely equivalent to manly. Manly refers to all the qualities and traits worthy of a man; manful, especially to the valor and prowess that become a man; we speak of a manful struggle, manly decision; we say manly gentleness or tenderness; we could not say manful tenderness. Mannish is a depreciatory word referring to the mimicry or parade of some superficial qualities of manhood; as, a mannish boy or woman. Masculine may apply to the distinctive qualities of the male sex at any age; virile applies to the distinctive qualities of mature manhood only, as opposed not only to feminine or womanly but to childish, and is thus an emphatic word for sturdy, intrepid, etc.

Antonyms:

See synonyms for FEMININE.

MASSACRE. Synonyms: butchery, carnage, havoc, slaughter.

A massacre is the indiscriminate killing in numbers of the unresisting[238] or defenseless; butchery is the killing of men rudely and ruthlessly as cattle are killed in the shambles. Havoc may not be so complete as massacre, nor so coldly brutal as butchery, but is more widely spread and furious; it is destruction let loose, and may be applied to organizations, interests, etc., as well as to human life; "as for Saul, he made havoc of the church," Acts viii, 3. Carnage (Latin caro, carnis, flesh) refers to widely scattered or heaped up corpses of the slain; slaughter is similar in meaning, but refers more to the process, as carnage does to the result; these two words only of the group may be used of great destruction of life in open and honorable battle, as when we say the enemy was repulsed with great slaughter, or the carnage was terrible.

MEDDLESOME. Synonyms: impertinent, intrusive, meddling, obtrusive, officious.

The meddlesome person interferes unasked in the affairs of others; the intrusive person thrusts himself uninvited into their company or conversation; the obtrusive person thrusts himself or his opinions conceitedly and undesirably upon their notice; the officious person thrusts his services, unasked and undesired, upon others. Obtrusive is oftener applied to words, qualities, actions, etc., than to persons; intrusive is used chiefly of persons, as is officious, tho we speak of officious attentions, intrusive remarks; meddlesome is used indifferently of persons, or of words, qualities, actions, etc. Compare INQUISITIVE; INTERPOSE.

Antonyms: modest, reserved, retiring, shy, unassuming, unobtrusive. MELODY. Synonyms: harmony, music, symphony, unison.

Harmony is simultaneous; melody is successive; harmony is the pleasing correspondence of two or more notes sounded at once, melody the pleasing succession of a number of notes continuously following one another. A melody may be wholly in one part; harmony must be of two or more parts. Accordant notes of different pitch sounded simultaneously produce harmony; unison is the simultaneous sounding of two or more notes of the same pitch. When the pitch is the same, there may be unison between sounds of very different volume and quality, as a voice and a bell may[239] sound in unison. Tones sounded at the interval of an octave are also said to be in unison, altho this is not literally exact; this usage arises from the fact that bass and tenor voices in attempting to sound the same note as the soprano and alto will in fact sound a note an octave below. Music may denote the simplest melody or the most complex and perfect harmony. A symphony (apart from its technical orchestral sense) is any pleasing consonance of musical sounds, vocal or instrumental, as of many accordant voices or instruments.

MEMORY. Synonyms: recollection, reminiscence, retrospect, retrospection. remembrance,

Memory is the faculty by which knowledge is retained or recalled; in a more general sense, memory is a retention of knowledge within the grasp of the mind, while remembrance is the having what is known consciously before