English Synonyms and Antonyms - James Champlin Fernald (christmas read aloud TXT) 📗
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A —— that is without vigor, and in which the anatomy has not been defined, is a bad foundation for a good picture.
Which should be to the larger ——
What the child is to the man.
SKILFUL (page 335). QUESTIONS.
1. What does skilful signify? 2. How does dexterous compare with skilful? 3. How does a skilled compare with a skilful workman?
EXAMPLES.Which shows like mists to the dull passenger.
Thousands of —— workmen are thrown into enforced idleness by the strikes and lockouts of every year.
Much that has been received as the work of disembodied spirits has been but the —— sleight of hand of spirits embodied.
SLANDER (page 336). QUESTIONS.1. What is it to slander? to defame? to libel? 2. When is defame equivalent to slander? When is it equivalent to libel? 3. What is it to asperse? to malign? to traduce? to disparage? 4. How do slander and libel differ in legal signification from the other words? 5. Which words of the group apply to open attack in one's presence, and which to attack in his absence?
EXAMPLES.That dare as well answer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue.
If the Scriptures seem to —— knowledge, it is the knowledge that despises virtue.
Who ——ed her spotless name.
SLANG (page 336). QUESTIONS.
1. What is a colloquialism? 2. What is slang in the primary and ordinary sense? in special senses? 3. What is a vulgarism? 4. What is cant in the sense here considered?
EXAMPLES.[500]
There is a —— bred of vileness that is never redeemed; there is also a —— that is the vigorous utterance of uncultured wit, that fills a gap in the language and mounts ultimately to the highest places.
A —— is worse than ——, because it bears the ineffaceable stamp of ignorance.
SOCIALISM (page 338). QUESTIONS.1. What is socialism? What term do many of its advocates prefer? 2. What is communism? anarchism?
EXAMPLES.—— in its full sense means the abolition of inheritance, the abolition of the family, the abolition of nationalities, the abolition of religion, the abolition of property.
——, in some modified form, is steadily making its way among thinking men under the guise of cooperation.
—— is the offspring of sore hearts and shallow brains. It is the wisdom of the man who burned down his house because his chimney smoked.
SPONTANEOUS (page 340). QUESTIONS.1. When is anything properly said to be spontaneous? voluntary? involuntary? 2. How do voluntary and involuntary compare with each other? both with spontaneous?
EXAMPLES.—— is opposed to reflective. Those operations of mind which are continually going on without any effort or intention on our part are spontaneous.
No action that is not —— has any merit.
SPY (page 340). QUESTIONS.1. In what are the spy and the scout alike? 2. In what do they differ? 3. What are their respective rights in case of capture? 4. What is an emissary?
EXAMPLES.A daring —— of General Stuart made his way to my quarters, and informed me that General Imboden had planned an attack upon the town.
I had grown uneasy in regard to the disjointed situation of our army and, to inform myself of what was going on, determined to send a —— into the enemy's lines.
STATE, v. (page 341). QUESTIONS.1. From what is state derived? What does it mean? 2. What is the significance of assert? What element is prominent in this word? 3. What is the relative force of affirm and assert? asseverate? aver? assure? 4. What does affirm signify in legal use, and how does it differ from swear? 5. What is it to certify? 6. What does vindicate signify?[501]
EXAMPLES.The first condition of intelligent debate is that the question be clearly ——ed.
We —— that the sciences dispose themselves round two great axes of thought, parallel and not unrelated, yet distinct—the natural sciences held together by the one, the moral by the other.
It is impossible for the mind to —— anything of that of which it knows nothing.
STORM (page 343). QUESTIONS.1. What is the essential meaning of storm? 2. What is a tempest?
EXAMPLES.Thrones, churches, ranks, traditions, customs, marriage.
Were any considerable mass of air to be suddenly transferred from beyond the tropics to the equator, the difference of the rotatory velocity proper to the two situations would be so great as to produce not merely a wind, but a —— of the most destructive violence.
STORY (page 343). QUESTIONS.1. What is a story? Is it true or false? 2. What is an anecdote? a narrative or narration?
EXAMPLES.There are ——, common to the different branches of the Aryan stock.... They are ancient Aryan ——, ... older than the Odyssey, older than the dispersion of the Aryan race.
——s are relations of detached, interesting particulars.
Fairy ——s have for children an inexhaustible charm.
SUBJECTIVE (page 345). QUESTIONS.1. What is the meaning of subjective? of objective? 2. How are these words illustrated in the case of a mountain? 3. What matters are purely subjective? 4. What matters are purely objective? 5. What is meant by saying that an author has a subjective or an objective style?
EXAMPLES.Subject therefore, denotes the mind itself; and ——, that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the thinking subject. Object is a term for that about which the knowing subject is conversant, ... while —— means that which belongs to, or proceeds from, the object known, and not from the subject knowing; and thus denotes what is real, in opposition to what is ideal,—what exists in nature, in contrast to what exists merely in the thought of the individual.
[502]
SUGGESTION (page 347). QUESTIONS.1. In what way does a suggestion bring a matter before the mind? 2. What is an intimation? a hint? 3. What are the special characteristics of insinuation and innuendo?
EXAMPLES.And the violets in the sward,
A —— of the old, lost beauty
Of the garden of the Lord!
Time is truly the comforter, at once lessening the tendency to —— of images of sorrow, and softening that very sorrow when the images arise.
An —— is cowardly because it can seldom be directly answered, and the one who makes it can always retreat behind an assumed misconstruction of his words; but the —— is the stab in the back, sneaking as it is malicious.
SUPERNATURAL (page 347). QUESTIONS.1. What is the original meaning of supernatural? of preternatural? 2. What is commonly implied in the use of preternatural? 3. In what sense do some hold a miracle to be supernatural? What descriptive term would others prefer? 4. What is the meaning of superhuman? In what secondary sense is it often used?
EXAMPLES.It was something altogether ——, as when God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.
With an imagination of intense vividness and —— activity, Choate was as practical as the most sordid capitalist that ever became an "incarnation of fat dividends."
SUPPORT (page 348). QUESTIONS.1. What do support and sustain alike signify? 2. How does sustain surpass support in meaning and force? 3. What is the force and use of bear in this connection? 4. What is it to maintain? 5. How does maintain compare with support as to fulness and as to dignity? 6. What is it to prop? What is the limit upon the meaning of this word?
EXAMPLES.And Cain said, My punishment is great than I can ——.
That doth —— my house.
Unus'd to power, and form'd for humbler scenes,
—— the splendid miseries of greatness?
The Gael ——ed unequal war.
[503]
SUPPOSE (page 348). QUESTIONS.1. What is it to suppose? 2. How does conjecture differ from suppose? 3. What does think signify in the sense here considered? How does it compare with conjecture or suppose?
EXAMPLES.Newton ——ed that if the earth were to be so compressed as to be absolutely without pores, its dimensions might not exceed a cubic inch.
Let it not be ——ed that principles and opinions always go together.
SYNONYMOUS (page 349). QUESTIONS.1. Are there any synonymous words in the strict sense of the term? 2. What is meant by synonymous words? 3. What are the two common faults with reference to synonymous words or synonyms?
EXAMPLES.The great source of a loose style is the injudicious use of those words termed ——.
To raise, with fitting observances, over the ruins of the historic fortress [Sumter] the —— flag which had waved over it during its first bombardment.
SYSTEM (page 350). QUESTIONS.1. What is order, in the sense here considered? 2. What does method denote? 3. What is a system? 4. To what does manner refer? 5. To what does regularity apply? 6. Can there be order without regularity or regularity without order, and how?
EXAMPLES.If this be madness, there is —— in it.
A —— is ... an organized body of truth, or truths arranged under one and the same idea, which idea is as the life or soul which assimilates all those truths.
TEACH (page 353). QUESTIONS.1. What is it to teach? 2. How does instruct surpass teach in signification? 3. What secondary sense has instruct? 4. What is the full meaning of educate? 5. What is it to train? 6. To what is train commonly applied where educate could not well be used? 7. What is it to discipline? 8. What does nurture signify, and how does it compare with educate?
EXAMPLES.Plato returned to Athens and began to ——; like his master, he —— without money and without price.
For the most effective mechanical work both mind and hand must be ——ed in childhood.[504]
The Highlanders flocking to him from all quarters, though ill-armed, and worse ——ed, made him undervalue any enemy who, he thought, was yet to encounter him.
TERM (page 354). QUESTIONS.1. What is the literal meaning of term? 2. Is this meaning retained in the figurative uses of the word? 3. What are the articles of a contract? the terms of a contract? 4. What is a condition? 5. What is a term in the logical sense? 6. How does term in ordinary use compare with word, expression, or phrase?
EXAMPLES.As the wave's poise before it break in pearl.
But what are these moral sermons [of Seneca]? ——s, nothing but ——s.
The very —— miser is a confession of the misery which attends avarice.
TERSE (page 354). QUESTIONS.1. What is the meaning of short or brief? 2. What is the derivation and meaning of concise? of condensed? of compendious? 3. What is the derivation and meaning of succinct? of terse? 4. What is the force of summary? 5. What is a sententious style? a pithy utterance?
EXAMPLES.With all his lucidity of statement, Hamilton was not always ——.
In most cases it will be found that the Victorian idiom is clearer, but less —— than the corresponding
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