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Synonyms and Antonyms

by James Champlin Fernald

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Title: English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions

Author: James Champlin Fernald

Release Date: May 21, 2009 [EBook #28900]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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English Synonyms and Antonyms

A Practical and Invaluable Guide to Clear and Precise Diction for Writers, Speakers,

Students, Business and Professional Men

Connectives of English Speech

"The work is likely to prove of great value to all writers."-- Washington Evening Star.

"The book will receive high appreciation from thoughtful students who seek the most

practical help."-- Grand Rapids Herald.

"It is written in a clear and pleasing style and so arranged that but a moment's time is

needed to find any line of the hundreds of important though small words which this book

discusses."-- Chattanooga Times.

"Its practical reference value is great, and it is a great satisfaction to note the care and

attention to detail and fine shades of meaning the author has bestowed upon the words he

discusses."-- Church Review , Hartford.

"A work of great practical helpfulness to a large class of people."-- Louisville Courier-

Journal.

"This is one of the most useful books for writers, speakers, and all who care for the use of

language, which has appeared in a long time."-- Cumberland Presbyterian , Nashville.

"It is a book of great value to all who take any interest in correct and elegant language."--

Methodist , Baltimore.

"This work is a welcome aid to good writing and good speech. It is worthy the close study

of all who would cultivate finished style. Its admirable arrangement and a good index

make it easy for reference."-- Christian Observer.

"His book has some excellent qualities. In the first place, it is absolutely free from

dogmatic assertion; in the second place, it contains copious examples from good authors,

which should guide aright the person investigating any word, if he is thoroughly

conversant with English."-- The Sun , New York.

STANDARD EDUCATIONAL SERIES

ENGLISH SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

WITH NOTES ON THE CORRECT USE OF PREPOSITIONS

DESIGNED AS A COMPANION FOR THE STUDY AND AS A TEXT-BOOK FOR

THE USE OF SCHOOLS

JAMES C. FERNALD, L.H.D. Editor of Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions in the

Standard Dictionary

NINETEENTH EDITION

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON

Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, Eng.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

PREFACE vii

PART I. SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS AND PREPOSITIONS 1

PART II. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 377

INDEX 509

PREFACE.

The English language is peculiarly rich in synonyms, as, with such a history, it could not

fail to be. From the time of Julius Cæsar, Britons, Romans, Northmen, Saxons, Danes, and

Normans fighting, fortifying, and settling upon the soil of England, with Scotch and Irish

contending for mastery or existence across the mountain border and the Channel, and all

fenced in together by the sea, could not but influence each other's speech. English

merchants, sailors, soldiers, and travelers, trading, warring, and exploring in every clime,

of necessity brought back new terms of sea and shore, of shop and camp and battlefield.

English scholars have studied Greek and Latin for a thousand years, and the languages of

the Continent and of the Orient in more recent times. English churchmen have introduced

words from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, through Bible and prayer-book, sermon and tract.

From all this it results that there is scarcely a language ever spoken among men that has

not some representative in English speech. The spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, masterful

in language as in war and commerce, has subjugated all these various elements to one

idiom, making not a patchwork, but a composite language. Anglo-Saxon thrift, finding

often several words that originally expressed the same idea, has detailed them to different

parts of the common territory or to different service, so that we have an almost

unexampled variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in usage, for expressing

almost every shade of human thought.

Scarcely any two of such words, commonly known as synonyms, are identical at once in

signification and in use. They have certain common ground within which they are

interchangeable; but outside of that each has its own special province, within which any

other word comes as an intruder. From these two qualities arises the great value of

synonyms as contributing to beauty and effectiveness of expression. As interchangeable,

they make possible that freedom and variety by which the diction of an accomplished

writer or speaker differs from the wooden uniformity of a legal document. As distinct and

specific, they enable a master of style to choose in every instance the one term that is the

most perfect mirror of his thought. To write or speak to the best purpose, one should know

in the first place all the words from which he may choose, and then the exact reason why

in any case any particular word should be chosen. To give such knowledge in these two

directions is the office of a book of synonyms.

Of Milton's diction Macaulay writes:

"His poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its

occult power. There would seem, at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other

words. But they are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced, than the past

is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once into existence, and all

the burial places of the memory give up their dead. Change the structure of the sentence;

substitute one synonym for another , and the whole effect is destroyed. The spell loses its

power; and he who should then hope to conjure with it would find himself as much

mistaken as Cassim in the Arabian tale, when he stood crying, 'Open Wheat,' 'Open

Barley,' to the door which obeyed no sound but 'Open Sesame.' The miserable failure of

Dryden in his attempt to translate into his own diction some parts of the 'Paradise Lost' is

a remarkable instance of this."

Macaulay's own writings abound in examples of that exquisite precision in the choice of

words, which never seems to be precise, but has all the aspect of absolute freedom.

Through his language his thought bursts upon the mind as a landscape is seen instantly,

perfectly, and beautifully from a mountain height. A little vagueness of thought, a slight

infelicity in the choice of words would be like a cloud upon the mountain, obscuring the

scene with a damp and chilling mist. Let anyone try the experiment with a poem like

Gray's "Elegy," or Goldsmith's "Traveller" or "Deserted Village," of substituting other

words for those the poet has chosen, and he will readily perceive how much of the charm

of the lines depends upon their fine exactitude of expression.

In our own day, when so many are eager to write, and confident that they can write, and

when the press is sending forth by the ton that which is called literature, but which

somehow lacks the imprint of immortality, it is of the first importance to revive the study

of synonyms as a distinct branch of rhetorical culture. Prevalent errors need at times to be

noted and corrected, but the teaching of pure English speech is the best defense against all

that is inferior, unsuitable, or repulsive. The most effective condemnation of an

objectionable word or phrase is that it is not found in scholarly works, and a student who

has once learned the rich stores of vigorous, beautiful, exact, and expressive words that

make up our noble language, is by that very fact put beyond the reach of all temptation to

linguistic corruption.

Special instruction in the use of synonyms is necessary, for the reason that few students

possess the analytical power and habit of mind required to hold a succession of separate

definitions in thought at once, compare them with each other, and determine just where

and how they part company; and the persons least able to do this are the very ones most in

need of the information. The distinctions between words similar in meaning are often so

fine and elusive as to tax the ingenuity of the accomplished scholar; yet when clearly

apprehended they are as important for the purposes of language as the minute differences

between similar substances are for the purposes of chemistry. Often definition itself is best

secured by the comparison of kindred terms and the pointing out where each differs from

the other. We perceive more clearly and remember better what each word is, by perceiving

where each divides from another of kindred meaning; just as we see and remember better

the situation and contour of adjacent countries, by considering them as boundaries of each

other, rather than by an exact statement of the latitude and longitude of each as a separate

portion of the earth's surface.

The great mass of untrained speakers and writers need to be reminded, in the first place,

that there are synonyms --a suggestion which they would not gain from any precision of

separate definitions in a dictionary. The deplorable repetition with which many slightly

educated persons use such words as "elegant," "splendid," "clever," "awful," "horrid," etc.,

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