The Century Vocabulary Builder Part 23

 

 

Edith B. Ordway: _Synonyms and Antonyms_. A compact, practical volume, with antonyms (in italics for contrast) immediately following synonyms.

Louis A. Flemming: _Putnam's Word Book_. A book of the ordinarily used synonyms of words, with antonyms after some of them, and with lists of a.s.sociated words wherever these are likely to be useful.

Samuel Fallows: _100,000 Synonyms and Antonyms_. A handy little volume, with useful lists of various kinds in appendices.

Richard Soule: _Dictionary of English Synonyms_ [revised and enlarged by George H. Howison]. A much larger and more expensive book than the others, and less practical for ordinary use, but fuller in treatment of material, with words of more than one meaning carefully divided into their various senses.

 

 

George Crabb: _English Synonyms_. A standard volume for over 100 years. Has close distinctions, but is somewhat scholarly for ordinary use.

Revised edition of 1917, omitting ill.u.s.trative quotations from literature, not so good as editions before that date.

James C. Fernald: _English Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions_.

A pleasing book to read, with much information about the use of words and their shades of meaning (with exercises), also with proper prepositions to follow words. Material taken from the _Standard Dictionary_.

Peter Mark Roget: _Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases_. Issued in many editions and revisions. Words grouped under general ideas. An excellent book for serious and laborious study, but not for quick use.

 

 

The best principle for the extension of one's mastery of synonyms is the principle already used over and over in this book--that of proceeding from the known to the unknown. It is the fundamental principle, indeed, of any kind of successful learning. We should build on what we have, fit each new piece of material into the structure already erected. But normally it is our ill fortune to learn through chance rather than through system. We perceive elucidation here, draw an inference there. These isolated fragments of knowledge may mislead rather than inform us.

The principle of proceeding from the known to the unknown may be applied to synonyms in various ways. Two of these--the two of most importance--we must consider here.

First, you should reckon with your personal, demonstrated needs. Just as you have already a.n.a.lyzed your working vocabulary for its general limits and shortcomings, so should you a.n.a.lyze it with particular reference to your poverty in synonyms. Watch your actual speech; make a list of the words--nouns, verbs, and adjectives particularly--that you employ again and again. Make each of these words the starting-point for a linguistic exploring expedition. First, write the word down. Then under it write all the synonyms that come forthwith to your mind. These const.i.tute your present available stock; in speaking or writing you could, if you kept yourself mentally alert, summon them on the moment. But the list, as you know, is not exhaustive. Draw a line under it and subjoin such synonyms as come to you after reflection. These const.i.tute a second stock, not instantaneously available, yet to be tagged as among your resources. Next add a list of the synonyms you find through research, through a ransacking of dictionaries and books of synonyms. This third stock, but dimly familiar if familiar at all, is in no practical sense yours. And indeed some of the words are too abstruse, learned, or technical for you to burden your memory with them. But many--most--are worth acquiring. By writing down the words of these three cla.s.ses you have done something to stamp them upon your memory as a.s.sociates. You must now make it your business to bring them into use. Never call upon them for volunteers, but like a wise commander summon the individual that can rightly perform a particular service. Thus will your speech, perhaps vague and indolent now, become exact, discriminating, competent, vital.

In the second place, you should obtain specific and detailed command of general ideas. Not of out-of-the-way ideas. But of the great basic ideas that are the common possession of all mankind. For through these basic ideas is the most natural and profitable approach to the study of synonyms. Each of them is represented by a generic word. So elementary are idea and word alike that a person cannot have the one in mind without having the other ready and a-quiver on his tongue. Every person is master of both. But it is unsafe to predicate the person's acquaintance with the shades and phases of the idea, or with the corresponding discriminations in language. He may not know them at all, he may know them partially, he may know them through and through. Let us suppose him ignorant of them but determined to learn. His progress, both in the thought and in the language, will be from the general to the specific. His acquaintance with the idea in the large he will gradually extend to an acquaintance with it in detail, and his command of the broad term for it he will little by little supplement with definite terms for its phases. An ill.u.s.tration will make this clear.

We are aware that the world is made up of various cla.s.ses and conditions of men. How did we learn this? Let us go back to the time when our minds were a blank, when we were babes and sucklings, when we had not perceived that men exist, much less that mankind is infinitely complex. A baby comes slowly to understand that all objects in the universe are divisible into two cla.s.ses, human and non-human, and that a member of the former may be separated from the others and regarded as an individual. It has reached the initial stage of its knowledge on the subject; it has the basic idea, that of the individual human being. As soon as it can speak, it acquires a designating term--not of course the sophisticated _human being_, but the simpler _man_. It uses this word in the generic sense, to indicate _any_ member of the human race; for as yet it knows nothing and cares nothing about differences in species. With increasing enlightenment, however, it discerns five species, and distinguishes among them by swelling this branch of its vocabulary to five words: man (in the sense of adult male), woman, boy, girl, baby. (To be sure, it may chance to have acquired a specific term, as _boy_ or _baby_, before the generic term _man_; but if so, it has attached this term to some particular individual, as the grocer's boy or itself, rather than to the individuals of a species. Its understanding of the species as a species comes after its understanding of the genus.) As time pa.s.ses, it divides mankind into yet further species by sundry other methods: according to occupation, for example, as doctors, chauffeurs, gardeners; to race or color, as white men; negroes, Malays, Chinese; to disposition, as heroes, gift-givers, teasers, talkers; and so on. It perceives moreover that species are made up of sub-species. Thus instead of lumping all boys together it begins to distinguish them as big boys, little boys, middle-sized boys, boys in long trousers, boys in short trousers, barefoot boys, schoolboys, poor boys, rich boys, sick boys, well boys, friends, enemies, bullies, and what not. It even divides the sub-species. Thus it cla.s.sifies schoolboys as bright boys, dullards, workers, s.h.i.+rkers, teachers' favorites, scapegoats, athletes, note-throwers, truant-players, and the like. And of these cla.s.ses it may make yet further sub-divisions, or at least it may separate them into the individuals that compose them.

In fine, with its growing powers and experience, it abandons its old conception that all persons are practically alike, and follows human nature through the countless ramifications of man's status, temperament, activities, or fate. And it augments its vocabulary to keep pace, roughly at least, with its expanding ideas. In thought and terminology alike its growth is from genus to species.

So it is with all our ideas and with all our words to cap them. We radiate from an ascertained center into new areas of knowledge; we proceed from the broad, fundamental, generic to the precise, discriminatory, specific.

Upon this natural law are based the exercises in this chapter and the two to follow. The starting-point is always a word representative of an elementary idea--a word and an idea which everybody knows; the advance is into the unknown or the unused, at any rate into the particular. Now fundamental ideas are not very numerous, and these exercises include the commoner ones. Such a method of studying synonyms must therefore yield large and tangible results.

One matter, however, should be explained. Most books of synonyms start with a word and list all the terms in any way related to it. The idea of the compilers is that the more they give the student the more they help him. But oftentimes by giving more than is strictly pertinent they actually hinder and confuse him. They may do this in various ways, of which two must be mentioned. First, they follow an idea too far afield.

Thus in listing the synonyms of _love_ they include such terms as _kindness_ and _lenity_, words only through stretched usage connected with _love_. Secondly, they trace, not one meaning of a word, but two or more unrelated meanings when the word chances to possess them. Thus in listing the synonyms of _cry_ they include both the idea of weeping and the idea of calling or screaming. What are the results of these methods? The student finds a clutter where he expects rationalized order; he finds he must exclude many words which lie in the borders and fringes of the meaning. Moreover he finds mere chance a.s.sociations mingled with marked kins.h.i.+ps. In both cases he finds dulled distinctions.

This book offers synonyms that are apropos and definite rather than comprehensive. Starting with a basic idea, it finds the generic term; it then disregards dim and distant relations.h.i.+ps, confines itself rigorously to one of perhaps two or three legitimate senses, and refuses to consider the peculiar twists and devious ways of subsidiary words when they wander from the idea it is tracing. It thus deliberately blinds itself to much that is interesting. But this partial blindness enables it to concentrate attention upon the matter actually under study, to give sharper distinctions and surer guidance.

EXERCISE A

After three introductory groups (dealing with thoroughly concrete ideas and words) the synonyms in this exercise are arranged alphabetically according to the first word in each group.

This first word is generic. It is immediately followed by a list of its synonyms. These are then informally discriminated or else (in a few instances) questions are asked about them. Perhaps a few less closely related synonyms are then listed for you to discriminate in a similar way.

Finally, ill.u.s.trative sentences are given. Each blank in these you are to fill with the word that conveys the meaning exactly. (To prevent monotony and inattention, the number of ill.u.s.trative sentences varies. You may have to use a particular word more than once, and another word not at all.)

 

 

Any one may be said to _walk_ who moves along on foot with moderate speed. He _plods_ if he walks slowly and heavily, and perhaps monotonously or spiritlessly as well. He _trudges_ if he walks toilsomely and wearily, as though his feet were heavy. He _treads_ if his walk is suggestive of a certain lightness and caution--if, for instance, he seems half-uncertain whether to proceed and sets one foot down carefully before the other. He _strides_ if he takes long steps, especially in a firm, pompous, or lofty manner. He _stalks_ if there is a certain stiffness or haughtiness in his walking. He _struts_ if he walks with a proud or affectedly dignified gait, especially if he also raises his feet high. He _tramps_ if he goes for a long walk, as for pleasure or enjoyment out-of-doors. He _marches_ if he walks in a measured, ordered way, especially in company with others. He _paces_ if he engages in a measured, continuous walk, as from nervousness, impatience, or anger. He _toddles_ if his steps are short, uneven, and unsteady, like those of a child. He _waddles_ if his movement is ungainly, with a duck-like swaying from side to side. He _shuffles_ if he drags his feet with a sc.r.a.ping noise. He _minces_ if he takes short steps in a prim, precise, or affectedly nice manner. He _strolls_ or _saunters_ if he goes along in an easy, aimless, or idle fas.h.i.+on. He _rambles_ if he wanders about, with no definite aim or toward no definite goal. He _meanders_ if he proceeds slowly and perhaps listlessly in an ever-changing course, as if he were following the windings of the crooked Phrygian river, Meander. He _promenades_ if he walks in a public place, as for pleasure or display. He _prowls_ if he moves about softly and stealthily, as in search of prey or booty. He _hobbles_ if he jerks along unevenly, as from a stiff or crippled condition of body. He _limps_ if he walks lamely. He _perambulates_ when he walks through, perhaps for observation or inspection. _(Perambulates is_ of course a learned word.)

_a.s.signment for further discrimination_: .

 

_Sentences_: They ____ down the lane in the moonlight. Rip Van Winkle loved to ____ about the mountains. "The plowman homeward ____ his weary way." The old man ____ down the street with his cane. The excavators ____ about the ruins in search of relics. He ____ about the room, almost bursting with importance. The nervous man ____ up and down the station platform. They ____ along the beach at the sea resort. The baby learned to ____ when it was eleven months old. The two of them ____ about the field all day hunting rabbits. A ghost, so they tell me, ____ about the haunted house at midnight. He carefully ____ the plank that spans the abyss. The baby ____ toward us with outstretched arms. The Chinaman ____ out of the back room of the laundry in his carpet slippers. They caught glimpses of gaunt wolves ____ about their campfire. He was terrified when the giant ____ into the room. The fat lady ____ down the aisle of the street car. The sick man will ____ a few steps each day until he is stronger. A turkey c.o.c.k ____ about the barnyard. A boy with a rag tied around his toe ____ painfully down the street. They reported to the police that a man had been ____ about the place. She held her skirts daintily and ____ along as if she were walking on eggs. The lovers ____ along the banks of the stream. He ____ through the hall like a conqueror. The children wore themselves out by ____ through the snow to school. We ____ through the meadows, often stooping to pick flowers as we went. The soldiers ____ into camp at nightfall.

 

 

What differences in human nature, conditions, and disposition are revealed by laughter! If a person gives audible expression to mirth, gayety, or good-humor, the simplest word to apply to what he does is _laugh_.

But suppose a girl, with slight or insufficient provocation, engages in silly or foolish though perhaps involuntary laughter. We should say she _giggles_. Suppose a youngster is amused at an inappropriate moment and but partly suppresses his laughter; or suppose he wilfully permits the breaking forth of just enough laughter to indicate disrespect. He _snickers_. Suppose a person gives a little, light laugh; or more especially, suppose a crowd gives such an one as the result of slight, simultaneous amus.e.m.e.nt. Our word now is _t.i.tters_. Suppose we laugh low or gently or to ourselves. We _chuckle_. Suppose some one laughs loudly, boisterously, even coa.r.s.ely, in a manner befitting a lumber camp rather than a drawing room. That person _guffaws_. Suppose a man engages in explosive and immoderate laughter. He _cachinnates_.

_a.s.signment for further discrimination_: .

 

_Second a.s.signment_: Name all the words you can that designate inaudible laughter (for example, ).

 

_Sentences_: The rough fellow ____ in the lecturer's face. "If you p.r.i.c.k us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not ____?" He kept ____ at the thought of the surprise he would give them. "The swain mistrustless of his s.m.u.tted face, While secret laughter ____ round the place." The ill-bred fellow was ____ with strident, violent, irritating sounds. "The little dog ____ to see such sport." The audience ____ when the speaker's gla.s.ses began to slip from his nose. The girl kept ____ in a way that embarra.s.sed us both. The small boy ____ when the preacher's notes fluttered out of the Bible to the floor. The rude fellows ____ at this evidence of my discomfiture. He ____ very kindly and told me not to feel any regrets. The little maids tried to be polite, but ____ irrepressibly.

 

 

A person simply directs his eyes to see. He _looks_. But eyes may speak, we are told, and since this person undergoes many changes of mood and purpose, we shall let his eyes tell us all they will about his different manners of looking. At first he but looks momentarily (as from lack of time) or casually (as from lack of interest). He _glances_.

Soon he makes a business of looking, and fastens his eyes for a long time on something he admires or wonders at. He _gazes_. Presently he looks with a blank, perhaps a rude, expression and with eyes opened widely; he may be for the moment overcome with incomprehension, surprise, or fright, or perhaps he wishes to be insolent. He _stares_. Now he is looking narrowly or closely at something that he sees with difficulty. He _peers_. The next moment he looks over something with care or with an encompa.s.sing sweep of vision. He _scans_ it. His interest thoroughly enlisted, he looks at it carefully point by point to see that it is right in each detail. He _scrutinizes_ it. He then alters his mood, and looks with scornful or malignant satisfaction upon something he has conquered or has power over. He _gloats_. Anger, perhaps fierceness, takes possession of him, and he looks with piercing eyes. He _glares_. Threat mingles with anger, and in all likelihood he looks scowlingly or frowningly. He _glowers_. An added expression of sullenness or gloom comes into his look. He _lowers_. He throws off his dark spirit and looks slyly and playfully, let us say through a small opening. He _peeks_. Playfulness gives place to curiosity; he looks quickly and furtively, perhaps through some tiny aperture, and probably at something he has no business to see. He _peeps_. The while he looks his mouth falls open, as from stupidity or wonder. He _gapes_. He looks at something a long time to study it. He _cons_ or _pores_. His study is not of the thing itself; it is meditation or reverie. He _pores_. A member of the opposite s.e.x is present; he looks at her with the effort of a flirt to attract attention to himself, or less scrupulous, he directs toward her amorous or inviting glances. He _ogles_.

_a.s.signment for further discrimination_: .

 

_Sentences:_ The inspecting officer ____ the men's equipment. The student ____ his lessons carefully. At this unexpected proposal Dobbett merely ____. Jimmie ____ at the fellow who had kicked the pup. The inquisitive maid ____ into all the the closets. He ____ over his fallen adversary. The bookkeeper ____ over his ledger. In the darkened hallway he ____ at the notices on the bulletin board. "The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth ____ from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven."

From the way her father ____ the foolish, young man should have known it was time to go. He ____ long and lovingly upon the scenes he was leaving.

The newcomer ____ insolently at his host and ____ the young ladies.

 

_Abandon_ denotes absolute giving up, as from force of circ.u.mstances or s.h.i.+rking of responsibility. _Desert_ refers to leaving or quitting in violation of obligation, duty, or oath. _Forsake_, which may involve no culpability, usually implies a breaking off of intimate a.s.sociation or attachment.

_Sentences_: The sailor ____ his s.h.i.+p. Necessity compelled him to ____ his friends in a time of sore trouble. They hated to ____ their old haunts. A brave man never ____ hope. An unscrupulous man will ____ his principles when it is to his advantage. "When my father and my mother ____ me, then the Lord will take me up." We ____ our attempt to save the s.h.i.+p.

 

To _abase_ is to bring down so that the victim feels himself lowered in estate or external condition. To _debase_ is to produce a marked decline in actual worth or in moral quality. To _degrade_ is to lower in rank or status. To _humble_ is to lower in dignity or self-esteem, or as used reflexively, to restrain one's own pride; the word often implies that the person has been over-proud or arrogant. To _humiliate_ is to deprive of self-esteem or to bring into ignominy.