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

To say that we are morally developed is synonymous with saying that we have reaped what some one has suffered for us.

H. W. Beecher Royal Truths p. 294. [T. & F. '66.]

In the strictest sense, synonymous words scarcely exist; rarely, if ever, are any two words in any language equivalent or identical in meaning; where a difference in meaning can not easily be shown, a difference in usage commonly exists, so that the words are not interchangeable. By synonymous words (or synonyms) we usually understand words that coincide or nearly coincide in some part of their meaning, and may hence within certain limits be used interchangeably, while outside of those limits they may differ very greatly in meaning and use. It is the office of a work on synonyms to point out these correspondences and differences, that language may have the flexibility that comes from freedom of selection within the common limits, with the perspicuity and precision that result from exact choice of the fittest words to express each shade of meaning outside of the common limits. To consider synonymous words identical is fatal to accuracy; to forget that they are similar, to some extent equivalent, and sometimes interchangeable, is destructive of freedom and variety.

SYSTEM. Synonyms: manner, method, mode, order, regularity, rule.

Order in this connection denotes the fact or result of proper arrangement according to the due relation or sequence of the matters arranged; as, these papers are in order; in alphabetical order. Method denotes a process, a general or established way of doing or proceeding in anything; rule, an authoritative requirement or an established course of things; system, not merely a law of action or procedure, but a comprehensive plan in which all the parts are related to each other and to the whole; as, a system of theology; a railroad system; the digestive system; manner refers to the external qualities of actions, and to those often as settled and characteristic; we speak of a system of taxation, a method of collecting taxes, the rules by which assessments are made; or we[351] say, as a rule the payments are heaviest at a certain time of year; a just tax may be made odious by the manner of its collection. Regularity applies to the even disposition of objects or uniform recurrence of acts in a series. There may be regularity without order, as in the recurrence of paroxysms of disease or insanity; there may be order without regularity, as in the arrangement of furniture in a room, where the objects are placed at varying distances. Order commonly implies the design of an intelligent agent or the appearance or suggestion of such design; regularity applies to an actual uniform disposition or recurrence with no suggestion of purpose, and as applied to human affairs is less intelligent and more mechanical than order. The most perfect order is often secured with least regularity, as in a fine essay or oration. The same may be said of system. There is a regularity of dividing a treatise into topics, paragraphs, and sentences, that is destructive of true rhetorical system. Compare HABIT; HYPOTHESIS.

Antonyms: chaos, derangement, disarrangement, disorder, irregularity. confusion, TACITURN. Synonyms: close, mute, reticent, speechless, dumb, reserved, silent, uncommunicative.

Dumb, mute, silent and speechless refer to fact or state; taciturn refers to habit and disposition. The talkative person may be stricken dumb with surprise or terror; the obstinate may remain mute; one may be silent through preoccupation of mind or of set purpose; but the taciturn person is averse to the utterance of thought or feeling and to communication with others, either from natural disposition or for the occasion. One who is silent does not speak at all; one who is taciturn speaks when compelled, but in a grudging way that repels further approach. Reserved suggests more of method and intention than taciturn, applying often to some special time or topic; one who is communicative regarding all else may be reserved about his business. Reserved is thus closely equivalent to uncommunicative, but is a somewhat stronger word, often suggesting pride or haughtiness, as when we say one is reserved toward inferiors. Compare PRIDE.

Antonyms: communicative, free, garrulous, loquacious, talkative, unreserved.

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TASTEFUL. Synonyms: artistic, delicate, esthetic, fastidious, nice, chaste, delicious, esthetical, fine, tasty. dainty, elegant, exquisite,

Elegant (L. elegans, select) refers to that assemblage of qualities which makes anything choice to persons of culture and refinement; it refers to the lighter, finer elements of beauty in form or motion, especially denoting that which exhibits faultless taste and perfection of finish. That which is elegant is made so not merely by nature, but by art and culture; a woodland dell may be beautiful or picturesque, but would not ordinarily be termed elegant. Tasteful refers to that in which the element of taste is more prominent, standing, as it were, more by itself, while in elegant it is blended as part of the whole. Tasty is an inferior word, used colloquially in a similar sense. Chaste (primarily pure), denotes in literature and art that which is true to the higher and finer feelings and free from all excess or meretricious ornament. Dainty and delicate refer to the lighter and finer elements of taste and beauty, dainty tending in personal use to an excessive scrupulousness which is more fully expressed by fastidious. Nice and delicate both refer to exact adaptation to some standard; the bar of a balance can be said to be nicely or delicately poised; as regards matters of taste and beauty, delicate is a higher and more discriminating word than nice, and is always used in a favorable sense; a delicate distinction is one worth observing; a nice distinction may be so, or may be overstrained and unduly subtle; fine in such use, is closely similar to delicate and nice, but (tho capable of an unfavorable sense) has commonly a suggestion of positive excellence or admirableness; a fine touch does something; fine perceptions are to some purpose; delicate is capable of the single unfavorable sense of frail or fragile; as, a delicate constitution. Esthetic or esthetical refers to beauty or the appreciation of the beautiful, especially from the philosophic point of view. Exquisite denotes the utmost perfection of the elegant in minute details; we speak of an elegant garment, an exquisite lace. Exquisite is also applied to intense keenness of any feeling; as, exquisite delight; exquisite pain. See BEAUTIFUL; DELICIOUS; FINE.

Antonyms: clumsy, displeasing, grotesque, inartistic, rough, coarse, distasteful, harsh, inharmonious, rude, deformed, fulsome, hideous, meretricious, rugged, disgusting, gaudy, horrid, offensive, tawdry.

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TEACH. Synonyms: discipline, give instruction, inform, nurture, drill, give lessons, initiate, school, educate, inculcate, instill, train, enlighten, indoctrinate, instruct, tutor.

To teach is simply to communicate knowledge; to instruct (originally, to build in or into, put in order) is to impart knowledge with special method and completeness; instruct has also an authoritative sense nearly equivalent to command. To educate is to draw out or develop harmoniously the mental powers, and, in the fullest sense, the moral powers as well. To train is to direct to a certain result powers already existing. Train is used in preference to educate when the reference is to the inferior animals or to the physical powers of man; as, to train a horse; to train the hand or eye. To discipline is to bring into habitual and complete subjection to authority; discipline is a severe word, and is often used as a euphemism for punish; to be thoroughly effective in war, soldiers must be disciplined as well as trained. To nurture is to furnish the care and sustenance necessary for physical, mental, and moral growth; nurture is a more tender and homelike word than educate. Compare EDUCATION.

TEMERITY. Synonyms: audacity, heedlessness, presumption, foolhardiness, over-confidence, rashness, hardihood, precipitancy, recklessness, hastiness, precipitation, venturesomeness.

Rashness applies to the actual rushing into danger without counting the cost; temerity denotes the needless exposure of oneself to peril which is or might be clearly seen to be such. Rashness is used chiefly of bodily acts, temerity often of mental or social matters; there may be a noble rashness, but temerity is always used in a bad sense. We say it is amazing that one should have had the temerity to make a statement which could be readily proved a falsehood, or to make an unworthy proposal to one sure to resent it; in such use temerity is often closely allied to hardihood, audacity, or presumption. Venturesomeness dallies on the edge of danger and experiments with it; foolhardiness rushes in for want of sense, heedlessness for want of attention, rashness for want of reflection, recklessness from disregard of consequences. Audacity, in the sense here considered, denotes a dashing and somewhat reckless courage, in defiance of conventionalities, or of[354] other men's opinions, or of what would be deemed probable consequences; as, the audacity of a successful financier. Compare EFFRONTERY.

Antonyms: care, caution, circumspection, cowardice, hesitation, timidity, wariness. TERM. Synonyms: article, denomination, member, phrase, condition, expression, name, word.

Term in its figurative uses always retains something of its literal sense of a boundary or limit. The articles of a contract or other instrument are simply the portions into which it is divided for convenience; the terms are the essential statements on which its validity depends—as it were, the landmarks of its meaning or power; a condition is a contingent term which may become fixed upon the happening of some contemplated event. In logic a term is one of the essential members of a proposition, the boundary of statement in some one direction. Thus, in general use term is more restricted than word, expression, or phrase; a term is a word that limits meaning to a fixed point of statement or to a special class of subjects, as when we speak of the definition of terms, that is of the key-words in any discussion; or we say, that is a legal or scientific term. Compare BOUNDARY; DICTION.

TERSE. Synonyms: brief, concise, neat, short, compact, condensed, pithy, succinct. compendious, laconic, sententious,

Anything short or brief is of relatively small extent. That which is concise (L. con-, with, together, and cædo, cut) is trimmed down, and that which is condensed (L. con-, with, together, and densus, thick) is, as it were, pressed together, so as to include as much as possible within a small space. That which is compendious (L. com-, together, and pendo, weigh) gathers the substance of a matter into a few words, weighty and effective. The succinct (L. succinctus, from sub-, under, and cingo, gird; girded from below) has an alert effectiveness as if girded for action. The summary is compacted to the utmost, often to the point of abruptness; as, we speak of a summary statement or a summary dismissal. That which is terse (L. tersus, from tergo, rub off) has an elegant and finished completeness within the smallest possible compass, as[355] if rubbed or polished down to the utmost. A sententious style is one abounding in sentences that are singly striking or memorable, apart from the context; the word may be used invidiously of that which is pretentiously oracular. A pithy utterance gives the gist of a matter effectively, whether in rude or elegant style.

Antonyms: diffuse, lengthy, long, prolix, tedious, verbose, wordy. TESTIMONY. Synonyms: affidavit, attestation, deposition, proof, affirmation, certification, evidence, witness.

Testimony, in legal as well as in common use, signifies the statements of witnesses. Deposition and affidavit denote testimony reduced to writing; the deposition differs from the affidavit in that the latter is voluntary and without cross-examination, while the former is made under interrogatories and subject to cross-examination. Evidence is a broader term, including the testimony of witnesses and all facts of every kind that tend to prove a thing true; we have the testimony of a traveler that a fugitive passed this way; his footprints in