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Title: The Century Vocabulary Builder
Author: Creever & Bachelor
Release Date: November 13, 2003 [EBook #10073]
Language: English
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THE CENTURY HANDBOOK SERIES
THE CENTURY HANDBOOK OF WRITING.
By Garland Greever and Easley S. Jones.
THE CENTURY VOCABULARY BUILDER.
By Garland Greever and Joseph M. Bachelor.
THE CENTURY DESK BOOK OF GOOD ENGLISH.
By Garland Greever and Joseph M. Bachelor.
A BUSINESS MAN'S DESK BOOK.
By Garland Greever and Joseph M. Bachelor.
THE FACTS AND BACKGROUNDS OF LITERATURE, English and American.
By George F. Reynolds, University of Colorado, and Garland Greever.
PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.
By General Henry M. Robert.
_Other Volumes To Be Arranged_
THE CENTURY VOCABULARY BUILDER.
By GARLAND GREEVER
and
JOSEPH M. BACHELOR
TO
DANA H. FERRIN
WHOM THIS BOOK OWES MORE
THAN A MERE DEDICATION CAN ACKNOWLEDGE
PREFACE
You should know at the outset what this book does _not_ attempt to
do. It does not, save to the extent that its own special purpose requires,
concern itself with the many and intricate problems of grammar, rhetoric,
spelling, punctuation, and the like; or clarify the thousands of
individual difficulties regarding correct usage. All these matters are
important. Concise treatment of them may be found in THE CENTURY HANDBOOK
OF WRITING and THE CENTURY DESK BOOK OF GOOD ENGLISH, both of which
manuals are issued by the present publishers. But this volume confines
itself to the one task of placing at your disposal the means of adding to
your stock of words, of increasing your vocabulary.
It does not assume that you are a scholar, or try to make you one. To be
sure, it recognizes the ends of scholarship as worthy. It levies at every
turn upon the facts which scholarship has accumulated. But it demands of
you no technical equipment, nor leads you into any of those bypaths of
knowledge, alluring indeed, of which the benefits are not immediate. For
example, in Chapter V it forms into groups words etymologically akin to
each other. It does this for an end entirely practical--namely, that the
words you know may help you to understand the words you do not know. Did
it go farther--did it account for minor differences in these words by
showing that they sprang from related rather than identical originals, did
it explain how and how variously their forms have been modified in the
long process of their descent--it would pass beyond its strict utilitarian
bounds. This it refrains from doing. And thus everything it contains it
rigorously subjects to the test of serviceability. It helps you to bring
more and more words into workaday harness--to gain such mastery over them
that you can speak and write them with fluency, flexibility, precision,
and power. It enables you, in your use of words, to attain the readiness
and efficiency expected of a capable and cultivated man.
There are many ways of building a vocabulary, as there are many ways of
attaining and preserving health. Fanatics may insist that one should be
cultivated to the exclusion of the others, just as health-cranks may
declare that diet should be watched in complete disregard of recreation,
sanitation, exercise, the need for medicines, and one's mental attitude to
life. But the sum of human experience, rather than fanaticism, must
determine our procedure. Moreover experience has shown that the various
successful methods of bringing words under man's sway are not mutually
antagonistic but may be practiced simultaneously, just as health is
promoted, not by attending to diet one year, to exercise the next, and to
mental attitude the third, but by bestowing wise and fairly constant
attention on all. Yet it would be absurd to state that all methods of
increasing one's vocabulary, or of attaining vigor of physique, are
equally valuable. This volume offers everything that helps, and it yields
space in proportion to helpfulness.
Aside from a brief introductory chapter, a chapter (number X) given over
to a list of words, and a brief concluding chapter, the subject matter of
the volume falls into three main divisions. Chapters II and III are based
on the fact that we must all use words in combination--must fling the
words out by the handfuls, even as the accomplished pianist must strike
his notes. Chapters IV and V are based on the fact that we must become
thoroughly acquainted with individual words--that no one who scorns to
study the separate elements of speech can command powerful and
discriminating utterance. Chapters VI, VII, VIII, and IX are based on the
fact that we need synonyms as our constant lackeys--that we should be able
to summon, not a word that will do, but a word that will express the idea
with precision. Exercises scattered throughout the book, together with
five of the six appendices, provide well-nigh inexhaustible materials for
practice.
For be it understood, once for all, that this volume is not a machine
which you can set going and then sit idly beside, the while your
vocabulary broadens. Mastery over words, like worthy mastery of any kind
whatsoever, involves effort for yourself. You can of course contemplate
the nature and activities of the mechanism, and learn something thereby;
but also you must work--work hard, work intelligently. As you cannot
acquire health by watching a gymnast take exercise or a doctor swallow
medicine or a dietician select food, so you cannot become an overlord of
words without first fighting battles to subjugate them. Hence this volume
is for you less a labor-saving machine than a collection and arrangement
of materials which you must put together by hand. It assembles everything
you need. It tags everything plainly. It tells you just what you must do.
In these ways it makes your task far easier. _But the task is yours_.
Industry, persistence, a fair amount of common sense--these three you must
have. Without them you will accomplish nothing.
Even with them--let the forewarning be candid--you will not accomplish
everything. You cannot learn all there is to be learned about words, any
more than about human nature. And what you do achieve will be, not a
sudden attainment, but a growth. This is not the dark side of the picture.
It is an honest avowal that the picture is not composed altogether of
light. But as the result of your efforts an adequate vocabulary will some
day be yours. Nor will you have to wait long for an earnest of ultimate
success. Just as system will speedily transform a haphazard business into
one which seizes opportunities and stops the leakage of profits, so will
sincere and well-directed effort bring you promptly and surely into an
ever-growing mastery of words.
CONTENTS
CHAPTERS
I. REASONS FOR INCREASING YOUR VOCABULARY.
II. WORDS IN COMBINATION: SOME PITFALLS.
Tameness
Exercise
Sovenliness
Exercises
Wordiness
Exercises
Verbal Discords
Exercise
1. Abstract vs. Concrete Terms; General vs. Specific Terms
Exercise
2. Literal vs. Figurative Terms
Exercise
3. Connotation
Exercise
III. WORDS IN COMBINATION: HOW MASTERED
Preliminaries: General Purposes and Methods
1. A Ready, an Accurate, or a Wide Vocabulary?
2. A Vocabulary for Speech or for Writing?
The Mastery of Words in Combination
1. Mastery through Translation
Exercise
2. Mastery through Paraphrasing
Exercise
3. Mastery through Discourse at First Hand
Exercise
4. Mastery through Adapting Discourse to Audience
Exercise
IV. INDIVIDUAL WORDS: AS VERBAL CELIBATES
What Words to Learn First
The Analysis of Your Own Vocabulary
Exercise
The Definition of Words
Exercise
How to Look up a Word in the Dictionary
Exercise
Prying into a Word's Past
Exercise
V. INDIVIDUAL WORDS: AS MEMBERS OF VERBAL FAMILIES
Words Related in Blood
Exercise
Words Related by Marriage
Exercise
Prying into a Word's Relationships
Exercise
Two Admonitions
General Exercise for the Chapter (with Lists of
Words Containing the Same Key-Syllables)
Second General Exercise (with Additional Lists)
Third General Exercise
Fourth General Exercise
Latin Ancestors of English Words
Latin Prefixes
Greek Ancestors of English Words
Greek Prefixes
VI. WORDS IN PAIRS.
Opposites
Exercise
Words Often Confused
Exercise
Parallels (with Lists)
Exercise
VII. SYNONYMS IN LARGER GROUPS (1)
How to Acquire Synonyms
Exercise (with Lists)
VIII. SYNONYMS IN LARGER GROUPS (2)
Exercise (with Lists)
IX. MANY-SIDED WORDS
Exercise
Literal vs. Figurative Applications
Exercise
Imperfectly Understood Facts and Ideas
Exercise
X. SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF WORDS
Exercise
XI. RETROSPECT
APPENDICES
1. The Drift of Our Rural Population Cityward (an Editorial)
2. Causes for the American Spirit of Liberty (by Edmund Burke)
3. Parable of the Sower (Gospel of St. Matthew)
4. The Seven Ages of Man (by William Shakespeare)
5. The Castaway (by Daniel Defoe)
6. Reading Lists
INDEX
CENTURY VOCABULARY BUILDER
I
REASONS FOR INCREASING YOUR VOCABULARY
Sometimes a dexterous use of words appears to us to be only a kind of
parlor trick. And sometimes it _is_ just that. The command of a wide
vocabulary is in truth an accomplishment, and like any other
accomplishment it may be used for show. But not necessarily. Just as a man
may have money without "flashing" it, or an extensive wardrobe without
sporting gaudy neckties or wearing a dress suit in the morning, so may he
possess linguistic resources without making a caddish exhibition of them.
Indeed the more distant he stands from verbal bankruptcy, the less likely
he is to indulge in needless display.
Again, glibness of speech sometimes awakens our distrust. We like actions
rather than words; we prefer that character, personality, and kindly
feelings should be their own mouthpiece. So be it. But there are thoughts
and emotions properly to be shared with other people, yet incapable of
being revealed except through language. It is only when language is
insincere--when it expresses lofty sentiments or generous sympathies, yet
springs from designing selfishness--that it justly arouses misgivings.
Power over words, like power of any other sort, is for use, not abuse.
That it sometimes is abused must not mislead us into thinking that it
should in itself be scorned or neglected.
Our contempt and distrust do not mean that our fundamental ideas about
language are unsound. Beneath our wholesome dislike for shallow facility
and insincerity of speech, we have a conviction that the mastery of words
is a good thing, not a bad. We are therefore unwilling to take the vow of
linguistic poverty. If we lack the ability to bend words to our use, it is
from laziness, not from scruple. We desire to speak competently, but
without affectation. We know that if our diction rises to this dual
standard, it silently distinguishes us from the sluggard, the weakling,
and the upstart. For such diction is not to be had on sudden notice, like
a tailor-made suit. Nor can it, like such a suit, deceive anybody as to
our true status. A man's utterance reveals what he is. It is the measure
of his inward attainment. The assertion has been made that for a man to
express himself freely and well in his native language is the surest proof
of his culture. Meditate the saying. Can you think of a proof that is
surer?
But a man's speech does more than lend him distinction. It does more than
reveal to others what manner of man he is. It is an instrument as well as
an index. It is an agent--oftentimes indeed it is _the_ agent--of his
influence upon others. How silly are those persons who oppose words to
things, as if words were not things at all but air-born unrealities! Words
are among the most powerful realities in the world. You vote the
Republican ticket. Why? Because you have studied the issues of the
campaign and reached a well-reasoned conclusion how the general interests
may be served? Possibly. But nine times in ten it will be because of that
_word_ Republican. You may believe that in a given instance the
Republican cause or candidate is inferior; you may have nothing personally
to lose through Republican defeat; yet you squirm and twist and seek
excuses for casting a Republican ballot. Such is the power--aye, sometimes
the tyranny--of a word. The word _Republican_ has not been selected
invidiously. _Democrat_ would have served as well. Or take religious
words--_Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist,
Lutheran,_ or what not. A man who belongs, in person or by proxy, to
one of the sects designated may be more indifferent to the institution
itself than to the word that represents it. Thus you may attack in his
presence the tenets of Presbyterianism, for example, but you must be wary
about calling the Presbyterian name. _Mother, the flag_--what sooner
than an insult coupled with these terms will rouse a man to fight? But
does that man kiss his mother, or salute the flag, or pay much heed to
either? Probably not. Words not realities? With what realities must we
more carefully reckon? Words are as dangerous as dynamite, as beneficent
as brotherhood. An unfortunate word may mean a plea rejected, an
enterprise baffled, half the world plunged into war. A fortunate word may
open a triple-barred door, avert a disaster, bring thousands of people
from jealousy and hatred into coöperation and goodwill.
Nor is it solely on their emotional side that men may be affected by
words. Their thinking and their esthetic nature also--their hard sense and
their personal likes and dislikes--are subject to the same influence. You
interview a potential investor; does he accept your proposition or not? A
prospective customer walks into your store; does he buy the goods you show
him? You enter the drawing room of one of the elite; are you invited again
and again? Your words will largely decide--your words, or your verbal
abstinence. For be it remembered that words no more than dollars are to be
scattered broadcast for the sole reason that you have them. The right word
should be used at the right time--and at that time only. Silence is
oftentimes golden. Nevertheless there are occasions for us to speak.
Frequent occasions. To be inarticulate _then_ may mean only
embarrassment. It may--some day it will--mean suffering and failure. That
we may make the most of the important occasions sure to come, we must have
our instruments ready. Those instruments are words. He who commands words
commands events--commands men.
II
WORDS IN COMBINATION: SOME PITFALLS
You wish, then, to increase your vocabulary. Of course you must become
observant of words and inquisitive about them. For words are like people:
they have their own particular characteristics, they do their work well or
ill, they are in good odor or bad, and they yield best service to him who
loves them and tries to understand them. Your curiosity about them must be
burning and insatiable. You must study them when they have withdrawn from
the throng of their fellows into the quiescence of their natural selves.
You must also see them and study them in action, not only as they are
employed in good books and by careful speakers, but likewise as they fall
from the lips of unconventional speakers who through them secure vivid and
telling effects. In brief, you must learn word nature, as you learn human
nature, from a variety of sources.
Now in ordinary speech most of us use words, not as individual things, but
as parts of a whole--as cogs in the machine of utterance by which we
convey our thoughts and feelings. We do not think of them separately at
all. And this instinct is sound. In our expression we are like large-scale
manufacturing plants rather than one-man establishments. We have at our
disposal, not one worker, but a multitude. Hence we are concerned with our
employees collectively and with the total production of which they are
capable. To be sure, our understanding of them as individuals will
increase the worth and magnitude of our output. But clearly we must have
large dealings with them in the aggregate.
This chapter and the following, therefore, are given over to the study of
words in combination. As in all matters, there is a negative as well as a
positive side to be reckoned with. Let us consider the negative side
first.
Correct diction is too often insipid. There is nothing wrong with it, but
it does not interest us--it lacks character, lacks color, lacks power. It
too closely resembles what we conceive of the angels as having--
impeccability without the warmth of camaraderie. Speech, like a man,
should be alive. It need not, of course, be boisterous. It may be intense
in a quiet, modest way. But if it too sedulously observes all the _Thou
shalt not's_ of the rhetoricians, it will refine the vitality out of
itself and leave its hearers unmoved.
That is why you should become a disciple of the pithy, everyday
conversationalist and of the rough-and-ready master of harangue as well as
of the practitioner of precise and scrupulous discourse. Many a speaker or
writer has thwarted himself by trying to be "literary." Even Burns when he
wrote classic English was somewhat conscious of himself and made, in most
instances, no extraordinary impression. But the pieces he impetuously
dashed off in his native Scotch dialect can never be forgotten. The man
who begins by writing naturally, but as his importance in the publishing
world grows, pays more and more attention to felicities--to "style"--and
so spoils himself, is known to the editor of every magazine. Any editorial
office force can insert missing commas and semicolons, and iron out
blunders in the English; but it has not the time, if indeed the ability,
to instil life into a lifeless manuscript. A living style is rarer than an
inoffensive one, and the road of literary ambition is strewn with failures
due to "correctness."
Cultivate readiness, even daring, of utterance. A single turn of
expression may be so audacious that it plucks an idea from its shroud or
places within us an emotion still quivering and warm. Sustained discourse
may unflaggingly clarify or animate. But such triumphs are beyond the
reach of those, whether speakers or writers, who are constantly pausing to
grope for words. This does not mean that scrutiny of individual words is
wasted effort. Such scrutiny becomes the basis indeed of the more
venturesome and inspired achievement. We must serve our apprenticeship to
language. We must know words as a general knows the men under him--all
their ranks, their capabilities, their shortcomings, the details and
routine of their daily existence. But the end for which we gain our
understanding must be to hurl these words upon the enemy, not as
disconnected units, but as battalions, as brigades, as corps, as armies.
Dr. Johnson, one of the most effective talkers in all history, resolved
early in life that, always, and whatever topic might be broached, he
would on the moment express his thoughts and feelings with as much vigor
and felicity as if he had unlimited leisure to draw on. And Patrick Henry,
one of the few really irresistible orators, was wont to plunge headlong
into a sentence and trust to God Almighty to get him out.
EXERCISE - Tameness
1. Study Appendix I (The Drift of Our Rural Population Cityward).
Do you regard it as written simply, with force and natural feeling? Or
does it show lack of spontaneity?--suffer from an unnatural and self-
conscious manner of writing? Is the style one you would like to cultivate
for your own use?
2. Express, if you can, in more vigorous language of your own, the thought
of the editorial.
3. Think of some one you have known who has the gift of racy colloquial
utterance. Make a list of offhand, homely, or picturesque expressions you
have heard him employ, and ask yourself what it is in these expressions
that has made them linger in your memory. With them in mind, and with your
knowledge of the man's methods of imparting his ideas vividly, try to make
your version of the editorial more forceful still.
4. Study Appendix 2 (Causes for the American Spirit of Liberty) as an
example of stately and elaborate, yet energetic, discourse. The speech
from which this extract is taken was delivered in Parliament in a vain
effort to stay England from driving her colonies to revolt. Some of
Burke's turns of phrase are extremely bold and original, as "The religion
most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle
of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent and the Protestantism of
the Protestant religion." Moreover, with all his fulness of diction, Burke
could cleave to the heart of an idea in a few words, as "Freedom is to
them [the southern slave-holders] not only an enjoyment, but a kind of
rank and privilege." Find other examples of bold or concise and
illuminating utterance.
5. Read Appendix 3 (Parable of the Sower). It has no special audacities of
phrase, but escapes tameness in various ways--largely through its simple
earnestness.
6. Make a list of the descriptive phrases in Appendix 4 (The Seven Ages of
Man) through which Shakespeare gives life and distinctness to his
pictures.
7. Study Appendix 5 (The Castaway) as a piece of homely, effective
narrative. (Defoe wrote for the man in the street. He was a literary
jack-of-all-trades whom dignified authors of his day would not
countenance, but who possessed genius.) It relies upon directness and
plausibility of substance and style rather than temerity of phrase. Yet it
never sags into tameness. Notice how everyday expressions ("My business
was to hold my breath," "I took to my heels") add subtly to our belief
that what Defoe is telling us is true. Notice also that such expressions
("the least capful of wind," "half dead with the water I took in," "ready
to burst with holding my breath") without being pretentious may yet be
forceful. Notice finally the naturalness and lift of the sinewy idioms ("I
fetched another run," "I had no clothes to shift me," "I had like to have
suffered a second shipwreck," "It wanted but a little that all my cargo
had slipped off").
8. Once or twice at least, make a mental note of halting or listless
expressions in a sermon, a public address, or a conversation. Find more
emphatic wording for the ideas thus marred.
9. To train yourself in readiness and daring of utterance, practice
impromptu discussion of any of the topics in Activity 1 for EXERCISE -
Discourse.
Though we are to recognize the advantage of working in the undress of
speech rather than in stiffly-laundered literary linens, though we are not
to despise the accessions of strength and of charm which we may obtain
from the homely and familiar, we must never be careless. The man whose
speech is slovenly is like the man who chews gum--unblushingly
commonplace.
We must struggle to maintain our individuality. We must not be a mere copy
of everybody else. We must put into our words the cordiality we put into
our daily demeanor. If we greeted friend or stranger carelessly,
conventionally, we should soon be regarded as persons of no force or
distinction. So of our speech and our writing. Nothing, to be sure, is
more difficult than to give them freshness without robbing them of
naturalness and ease. Yet that is what we must learn to do. We shall not
acquire the power in a day. We shall acquire it as a chess or a baseball
player acquires his skill--by long effort, hard practice.
One thing to avoid is the use of words in loose, or fast-and-loose,
senses. Do not say that owning a watch is a fine proposition if you mean
that it is advantageous. Do not say that you trembled on the brink of
disaster if you were threatened with no more than inconvenience or
comparatively slight injury. Do not say you were literally scared to death
if you are yet alive to tell the story.
EXERCISE - Slovenliness I
Give moderate or accurate utterance to the following ideas:
The burning of the hen-coop was a mighty conflagration.
The fact that the point of the pencil was broken profoundly surprised me.
We had a perfectly gorgeous time.
It's a beastly shame that I missed my car.
It is awfully funny that he should die.
The saleslady pulled the washlady's hair.
A cold bath is pretty nice of mornings.
To go a little late is just the article.
Another thing to avoid is the use of words in the wrong parts of speech,
as a noun for a verb, or an adjective for an adverb. Sometimes newspapers
are guilty of such faults; for journalistic English, though pithy, shows
here and there traces of its rapid composition. You must look to more
leisurely authorities. The speakers and writers on whom you may rely will
not say "to burglarize," "to suspicion," "to enthuse," "plenty rich,"
"real tired," "considerable discouraged," "a combine," or "humans." An
exhaustive list of such errors cannot be inserted here. If you feel
yourself uncertain in these details of usage, you should have access to
such a volume as _The Century Desk Book of Good English_.
EXERCISE - Slovenliness II
1. For each quoted expression in the preceding paragraph compose a
sentence which shall contain the correct form, or the grammatical
equivalent, of the expression.
2. Correct the following sentences:
The tramp suicided.
She was real excited.
He gestured angry.
He was some anxious to get to the eats.
All of us had an invite.
Them boys have sure been teasing the canine.
Another thing to avoid is triteness. The English language teems with
phrases once strikingly original but now smooth-worn and vulgarized by
incessant repetition. It can scarcely be said that you are to shun these
altogether. Now and then you will find one of them coming happily as well
as handily into your speech. But you must not use them too often. Above
all, you must rid yourself of any dependence upon them. The scope of this
book permits only a few illustrations of the kinds of words and phrases
meant. But the person who speaks of "lurid flames," or "untiring efforts,"
or "specimens of humanity"--who "views with alarm," or has a "native
heath," or is "to the manner born"--does more than advertise the
scantness of his verbal resources. He brands himself mentally indolent; he
deprives his thought itself of all sharpness, exactness, and power.
EXERCISE - Slovenliness III
Replace with more original expressions the trite phrases (italicized)
in the following sentences:
_Last but not least_, we have _in our midst_ one who began life
_poor but honest_.
After we had _done justice to a dinner_ and gathered in the drawing
room, we listened _with bated breath_ while she _favored us with a
selection_.
_A goodly number_ of _the fair sex_, perceiving that _the
psychological moment_ had come, _applauded him to the echo_.
We were _doomed to disappointment; the grim reaper_ had already
gathered unto himself _all that was mortal_ of our comrade.
_No sooner said than done_. I soon found myself _the proud
possessor_ of that for which I had acknowledged _a long-felt
want_.
After _the last sad rites_ were over and her body was _consigned to
earth_, we began talking _along these lines_.
With _a few well-chosen words_ he _brought order out of chaos_.
The way my efforts were _nipped in the bud_ simply _beggars
description_. I am somewhat _the worse for wear. Hoping you are the
same_, I remain Yours sincerely, Ned Burke.
Finally, to the extent that you use slang at all, be its master instead of
its slave. You have many times been told that the overuse of slang
disfigures one's speech and hampers his standing with cultivated people.
You have also been told that slang constantly changes, so that one's
accumulations of it today will be a profitless clutter tomorrow. These
things are true, but an even more cogent objection remains. Slang is
detrimental to the formation of good intellectual habits. From its very
nature it cannot be precise, cannot discriminate closely. It is a vehicle
for loose-thinking people, it is fraught with unconsidered general
meanings, it moves in a region of mental mists. It could not flourish as
it does were fewer of us content to express vague thoughts and feelings
instead of those which are sharply and specifically ours. Unless,
therefore, you wish your intellectual processes to be as hazy and
haphazard as those of mental shirkers and loafers, you must eschew, not
necessarily all slang, but all heedless, all habitual use of it. Now and
then a touch of slang, judiciously chosen, is effective; now and then it
fulfils a legitimate purpose of language. But normally you should express
yourself as befits one who has at his disposal the rich treasuries of the
dictionary instead of a mere stock of greasy counterfeit phrases.
EXERCISE - Slovenliness IV
Replace the following slang with acceptable English:
We pulled a new wrinkle.
He's an easy mark.
Oh, you're nutty.
Beat it.
I have all the inside dope.
You can't bamboozle me.
What a phiz the bloke has!
You're talking through your hat.
We had a long confab with the gink.
He's loony over that chicken.
The prof. told us to vamoose.
Take a squint at the girl with the specs.
Ain't it fierce the way they swipe umbrellas?
Goodnight, how she claws the ivory!
Nix on the rough stuff.
And there I got pinched by a cop for parking my Tin Lizzie.
As a precaution against tameness you should cultivate spontaneity and
daring. As a precaution against slovenliness you should cultivate
freshness and accuracy. But to display spontaneity, daring, freshness,
accuracy you must have or acquire a large stock, a wide range, of words.
Now this possession, like any other, brings with it temptation. If we have
words, we like to use them. Nor do we wait for an indulgence in this
luxury until we have consciously set to work to amass a vocabulary.
Verbosity is, in truth, the besetting linguistic sin. Most people are
lavish with words, as most people are lavish with money. This is not to
say that in the currency of language they are rich. But even if they lack
the means--and the desire--to be extravagant, they yet make their
purchases heedlessly or fail to count their linguistic change. The degree
of our thrift, not the amount of our income or resources, is what marks us
as being or not being verbal spendthrifts. The frugal manager buys his
ideas at exactly the purchase price. He does not expend a twenty-dollar
bill for a box of matches.
Have words by all means, the more of them the better, but use them
temperately, sparingly. Do not think that a passage to be admirable must
be studded with ostentatious terms. Consider the Gettysburg Address or the
Parable of the Prodigal Son. These convey their thought and feeling
perfectly, yet both are simple--exquisitely simple. They strike us indeed
as being inevitable--as if their phrasing could not have been other than
it is. They have, they are, finality. What could glittering phraseology
add to them? Nothing; it could only mar them. Yet Lincoln and the
Scriptural writers were not afraid to use big words when occasion
required. What they sought was to make their speech adequate without
carrying a superfluous syllable.
"The sun set" is more natural and effective than "The celestial orb that
blesses our terrestrial globe with its warm and luminous rays sank to its
nocturnal repose behind the western horizon." Great writers--the true
masters--have often held "fine writing" and pretentious speaking up to
ridicule. Thus Shakespeare has Kent, who has been rebuked for his
bluntness, indulge in a grandiloquent outburst:
"Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity,
Under the allowance of your grand aspect,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering Phoebus' front,--"
No wonder Kent is interrupted with a "What meanest by this?" Sometimes
great writers use ornate utterance for humorous effects. Thus Dickens
again and again has Mr. Micawber express a commonplace idea in sounding
terms which at length fail him, so that he must interject an "in short"
and summarize his meaning in a phrase amusing through its homely contrast.
But humor based on ponderous diction is too often wearisome. Better say
simply "He died," or colloquially "He kicked the bucket," than "He
propelled his pedal extremities with violence against the wooden pail
which is customarily employed in the transportation of the aquatic fluid."
EXERCISE - Wordiness I
Express these ideas in simpler language:
The temperature was excessive.
The most youthful of his offspring was not remarkable for personal
pulchritude.
Henry Clay expressed a preference for being on the right side of public
questions to occupying the position of President of the United States of
America.
He who passes at an accelerated pace may nevertheless be capable of
perusing.
A masculine member of the human race was mounted on an equine quadruped.
But the number of the terms we employ, as well as their ostentatiousness,
must be considered. Most of us blunder around in the neighborhood of our
meaning instead of expressing it briefly and clearly. We throw a handful
of words at an idea when one word would suffice; we try to bring the idea
down with a shotgun instead of a rifle. Of course one means of correction
is that we should acquire accuracy, a quality already discussed. Another
is that we should practice condensation.
First, let us learn to omit the words which add nothing to the meaning.
Thus in the sentence "An important essential in cashing a check is that
you should indorse it on the back," several words or groups of words
needlessly repeat ideas which are expressed elsewhere. The sentence is as
complete in substance, and far terser in form, when it reads "An essential
in cashing a check is that you should indorse it."
Next, let us, when we may, reduce phrases and even clauses to a word. Thus
the clause at the beginning and the phrase at the close of the following
sentence constitute sheer verbiage: "Men who have let their temper get the
better of them are often in a mood to do harm to somebody." The sentence
tells us nothing that may not be told in five words: "Angry men are often
dangerous."
Finally, let us substitute phrases or clauses for unnecessary sentences.
The following series of independent assertions contains avoidable
repetitions: "One morning I was riding on the subway to my work. It was
always my custom to ride to my work on the subway. This morning I met
Harry Blake." The full thought may better be embodied in a single
sentence: "One morning, while I was, as usual, riding on the subway to my
work, I met Harry Blake."
By applying these instructions to any page at hand--one from your own
writing, one from a letter some friend has sent you, one from a book or
magazine--you will often be able to strike out many of the words without
at all impairing the meaning. Another means of acquiring succinct
expression is to practice the composition of telegrams and cable messages.
You will of course lessen the cost by eliminating every word that can
possibly be spared. On the other hand, you must bear it in mind that your
punctuation will not be transmitted, and that the recipient must be
absolutely safeguarded against reading together words meant to be
separated or separating words meant to be read together. That is, your
message must be both concise and unmistakably clear.
EXERCISE - Wordiness II
1. Condense the editorial (Appendix 1) by eliminating unnecessary words
and finding briefer equivalents for roundabout expressions.
2. Try to condense similarly the Parable of the Sower (Appendix 3) and the
Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). (The task will largely or altogether
baffle you, but will involve minute study of tersely written passages.)
3. Condense the following:
A man whose success in life was due solely to his own efforts rose in his
place and addressed the man who presided over the meeting.
A girl who sat in the seat behind me giggled in an irritating manner.
We heard the wild shriek of the locomotive. Any sound in that savage
region seemed more terrible than it would in civilized surroundings. So as
we listened to the shriek of the locomotive, it sounded terrible too.
I heard what kind of chauffeur he was. A former employer of his told me.
He was a chauffeur who speeded in reckless fashion because he was fond of
having all the excitement possible.
4. Condense the following into telegrams of ten words or less:
Arrived here in Toledo yesterday morning talked with the directors found
them not hostile to us but friendly.
Detectives report they think evidence now points to innocence of man
arrested and to former employee as the burglar.
5. The following telegrams are ambiguous. Clarify them.
Jane escaped illness I feared Charley better.
Buy oil if market falls sell cotton.
6. Base a telegraphic night letter of not more than fifty words
upon these circumstances:
(a) You have been sent to buy, if possible and as cheaply as possible, a
majority of the stock in a given company. You find that many of the
stockholders distrust or dislike the president and are willing to sell.
Some of these ask only $50 a share for their holdings; the owners of 100
shares want as much as $92; the average price asked is $76. By buying out
all the president's enemies, which you can now do beyond question, you
would secure a bare majority of the stock. But $92 a share seems to you
excessive; that is, you think that by working quietly among the
president's friends you can get 100 shares at $77 or thereabouts and thus
save approximately $1500. On the other hand, should your dealings with the
friends of the president give him premature warning, he might stop the
sales by these friends and himself begin buying from his enemies, and thus
make your purchase of a majority of the stock impossible. Is the $1500 you
would save worth the risk you would be obliged to take? You call for
instructions.
(b) You are telegraphing a metropolitan paper the results of a
Congressional election. Philput, the Republican candidate, leads in the
cities, from which returns are now complete. Wilkins, the Democratic
candidate, leads in the country, from only certain districts of which--
those nearest the cities--returns have been heard. If the present
proportionate division of the rural vote is maintained for the total,
Philput will be elected by a plurality of three hundred votes. Philput
asserts that the proportions will hold. Wilkins points out, however, that
he is relatively stronger in the more remote districts and predicts that
he will have a plurality of seven hundred votes. Smallbridge, an
independent candidate, is apparently making a better race in the country
than in the city, but he is so weak in both places that the ballots cast
for him can scarcely affect the outcome unless the margin of victory is
infinitesimal.
7. Compress 6a and 6b each into a telegram of not more than ten words.
8. (Do not read this assignment until you have composed the night letters
and telegrams called for in 6 and 7.) Compare your first night letter in 6
and your first telegram in 7 with the versions given below. Decide where
you have surpassed these versions, where you have fallen short of them.
_Night letter_: Two factions in company I can buy from enemies
president bare majority stock at average seventy-six but hundred of these
shares held at ninety-two I could probably get hundred quietly from
friends president about seventy-seven but president might detect move and
buy majority stock himself wire instructions. (Fifty words.)
_Telegram_: Wire whether buy safe or risk control saving fifteen
hundred. (Ten words.)
A final device for escaping wordiness you will have discovered for
yourself while composing telegrams and telegraphic night letters. It is to
pass over details not vital to your purpose. Of course you must have due
regard for circumstances; details needed for one purpose may be
superfluous for another. But all of us are familiar with the person who
loses her ideas in a rigmarole of prosaic and irrelevant facts. Such a
person is Shakespeare's scatter-brained Dame Quickly. On one occasion this
voluble woman is shrilly reproaching Sir John Falstaff for his
indebtedness to her. "What is the gross sum that I owe thee?" he inquires.
She might answer simply: "If thou wert an honest man, thyself and the
money too. Thou didst promise to marry me. Deny it if thou canst."
Instead, she plunges into a prolix recital of the circumstances of the
engagement, so that the all-important fact that the engagement exists has
no special emphasis in her welter of words. "If thou wert an honest man,"
she cries, "thyself and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a
parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by
a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the prince broke thy
head for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst swear
to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my lady
thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife,
come in then and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of
vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst
desire to eat some, whereby I told thee they were ill for a green wound?
And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more
so familiarity with such poor people; saying that ere long they should
call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me and bid me fetch thee thirty
shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it if thou canst."
EXERCISE - Wordiness III
1. Study the following paragraph, decide which ideas are important,
and strike out the details that merely clog the thought:
As I stepped into the room, I heard the clock ticking and that caused me
to look at it. It sits on the mantelpiece with some layers of paper under
one corner where the mantel is warped. When the papers slip out or we move
the clock a little as we're dusting, the ticking stops right away. Of
course the clock's not a new one at all, but it's an old one. It has been
in the family for many a long year, yes, from even before my father's
time. Let me see, it was bought by my grandfather. No, it couldn't have
been grandfather that bought it; it was his brother. Oh, yes, I remember
now; my mother told me all about it, and I'd forgotten what she said till
this minute. But really my grandfather's brother didn't exactly buy it. He
just traded for it. He gave two pigs and a saddle, that's what my mother
said. You see, he was afraid his hogs might take cholera and so he wanted
to get rid of them; and as for the saddle, he had sold his riding-horse
and he didn't have any more use for that. Well, it isn't a valuable clock,
like a grandfather clock or anything of that sort, though it is antique.
As I was saying, when I glanced at it, it read seven minutes to six. I
remember the time very well, for just then the factory whistle blew and I
remember saying to myself: "It's seven minutes slow today." You see, it's
old and we don't keep it oiled, and so it's always losing time. Hardly a
day passes but I set it up--sometimes twice a day, as for the matter of
that--and I usually go by the factory whistle too, though now and then I
go by Dwight's gold watch. Well, anyhow, that tells me what time it was.
I'm certain I can't be wrong.
2. Study, on the other hand, The Castaway (Appendix 5) for its judicious
use of details. Defoe in his stories is a supreme master of verisimilitude
(likeness to truth). As we read him, we cannot help believing that these
things actually happened. More than in anything else the secret of his
lifelikeness lies in his constant faithfulness to reality. He puts in the
little mishaps that would have befallen a man so situated, the things he
would have done, the difficulties he might have avoided had he exercised
forethought. Though Defoe had little insight into the complexities of
man's inner life, he has not been surpassed in his accumulations of
naturalistic outer details. These do not cumber his narrative; they
contribute to its purpose and add to its effectiveness. In this selection
(Appendix 5) observe how plausible are such homely details as Crusoe's
seeing no sign of his comrades "except three of their hats, one cap, and
two shoes that were not fellows"; as his difficulty in getting aboard the
ship again; and as his having his clothes washed away by the rising of the
tide. Find half a dozen other such incidents that You consider especially
effective.
We may pitch our talk or our writing in almost any key we choose. Our
mood may be dreamy or eager or hilarious or grim or blustering or somber
or bantering or scornful or satirical or whatever we will. But once we
have established the tone, we should not--except sometimes for broadly
humorous effects--change it needlessly or without clear forewarning. If we
do, we create one or the other of two obstacles, or both of them, for
whoever is trying to follow what we say. In the first place, we obscure
our meaning. For example, we have been speaking ironically and suddenly
swerve into serious utterance; or we have been speaking seriously and then
incongruously adopt an ironic tone. How are our listeners, our readers to
take us? They are puzzled; they do not know. In the second place, we
offend--perhaps in insidious, indefinable fashion--the esthetic
proprieties; we violate the natural fitness of things. For example, we
have been speaking with colloquial freedom, sprinkling our discourse with
_shouldn't_ and _won't;_ suddenly we become formal and say
_should not_ and _will not_. Our meaning is as obvious as
before, but the verbal harmony has been interrupted; our hearers or
readers are uneasily aware of a break in the unity of tone.
A speaker or writer is a host to verbal guests. When he invites them to
his assembly, he gives each the tacit assurance that it will not be
brought into fellowship with those which in one or another of a dozen
subtle ways will be uncongenial company for it. He must never be forgetful
of this unspoken promise. If he is to avoid a linguistic breach, he must
constantly have his wits about him; must study out his combinations
carefully, and use all his knowledge, all his tact. He will make due use
of spontaneous impulse; but that this may be wise and disciplined, he will
form the habit of curiosity about words, their stations, their savor,
their aptitudes, their limitations, their outspokenness, their reticences,
their affinities and antipathies. Thus when he has need of a phrase to
fill out a verbal dinner party, he will know which one to select.
Certain broad classifications of words are manifest even to the most
obtuse user of English. _Shady_, _behead_, and _lying_ are
"popular" words, while their synonyms _umbrageous,_ decapitate,_
and _mendacious_ are "learned" words. _Flabbergasted_ and
_higgledy-piggledy_ are "colloquial," while _roseate_ and
_whilom_ are "literary." _Affidavit_, _allegro_, _lee shore_,
and _pinch hit_ are "technical," while _vamp_, _savvy_, _bum
hunch_, and _skiddoo_ are "slang." It would be disenchanting
indeed were extremes of this sort brought together. But offenses of a less
glaring kind are as hard to shut out as February cold from a heated house.
Unusual are the speeches or compositions, even the short ones, in which
every word is in keeping, is in perfect tune with the rest.
For the attainment of this ultimate verbal decorum we should have to
possess knowledge almost unbounded, together with unerring artistic
instinct. But diction of a kind only measurably inferior to this is
possible to us if we are in earnest. To attain it we must study the
difference between abstract and concrete terms, and let neither intrude
unadvisedly upon the presence or functions of the other; do the same by
literal and figurative terms and instruct ourselves in the nature and
significance of connotation.
Before considering these more detailed matters, however, we may pause for
a general exercise on verbal harmony.
EXERCISE - Discords
1. Study the editorial in Appendix 1 for unforewarned changes in mood and
assemblages of mutually uncongenial words. Rewrite the worst two
paragraphs to remove all blemishes of these kinds.
2. Compare Burke's speech (Appendix 2) with Defoe's narrative (Appendix 5)
for the difference in tone between them. Does each keep the tone it adopts
(that is, except for desirable changes)?
3. Note the changes in tone in the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). Do the
changes in substance make these changes in tone desirable?
4. In the following passages, make such changes and omissions as are
necessary to unify the tone:
How I loved to stroll, on those long Indian summer afternoons, into the
quiet meadows where the mild-breathed kine were grazing! An old cow that
switches her tail at flies and puts her foot in the bucket when you milk
her, I absolutely loathe. How I loved to hear the birds sing, to listen to
the fall of ripe autumnal apples!
It wasn't the girl yclept Sally. This girl was not so vivacious as Sally,
but she had a mug on her that was a lot less ugly to look at. Gee, when
she stood there in front of me with those mute, ineffable, sympathetic
eyes of hers, I was ready to throw a duck-fit.
Old Grimes is dead, that dear old soul;
We'll never see him more;
He wore a great long overcoat,
All buttoned down before.
Abstract terms convey ideas; concrete terms call up pictures. If we say
"Honesty is the best policy," we speak abstractly. Nobody can see or hear
or touch the thing _honesty_ or the thing _policy_; the
apprehension of them must be purely intellectual. But if we say "The
rat began to gnaw the rope," we speak concretely. _Rat_, _gnaw_,
and _rope_ are tangible, perceptible things; the words bring to us
visions of particular objects and actions.
Now when we engage in explanations and discussions of principles,
theories, broad social topics, and the like--when we expound, moralize, or
philosophize,--our subject matter is general. We approach our readers or
hearers on the thinking, the rational side of their natures. Our
phraseology is therefore normally abstract. But when, on the other hand,
we narrate an event or depict an appearance, our subject matter is
specific. We approach our readers or hearers on the sensory or emotional
side of their natures. Our phraseology is therefore normally concrete.
You should be able to express yourself according to either method. You
should be able to choose the words best suited to make people understand;
also to choose the words best suited to make people realize vividly and
feel. Now to some extent you will adopt the right method by intuition. But
if you do not reinforce your intuition with a careful study of words, you
will vacillate from one method to the other and strike crude discords of
phrasing. Of course if you switch methods intelligently and of purpose,
that is quite another matter. An abstract discussion may be enlivened by a
concrete illustration. A concrete narrative or portrayal may be given
weight and rationalized by generalization. Moreover many things lie on the
borderland between the two domains and may properly be attached to either.
Thus the abstraction is legitimate when you say or write: "A man wishes to
acquire the comforts and luxuries, as well as the necessaries, of life."
The concreteness is likewise legitimate when you say or write: "John Smith
wishes to earn cake as well as bread and butter."
In most instances general terms are the same as abstract, and specific the
same as concrete. Some subtle discriminations may, however, be made. Of
these the only one that need concern us here is that the wording of a
passage may not be abstract and yet be general. Suppose, for example, you
were telling the story of the prodigal son and should say: "He was very
hungry, and could not obtain food anywhere. When he had come to his
senses, he thought, 'I should be better off at home.'" This language is
not abstract, but it is general rather than specific. When Jesus told the
story, he wished to put the situation as poignantly as possible and
therefore avoided both abstract and general terms: "And he would fain have
filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave
unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of
my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!"
Many a person who shuns abstractions and talks altogether of the concrete
things of life, yet traps out circumstance in general rather than specific
terms. To do this is always to sacrifice force.
EXERCISE - Abstract
1. Discuss as abstractly as possible such topics as those listed in
Activity 1 for EXERCISE - Discourse, or as the following:
Is there any such thing as luck?
Is the Golden Rule practicable in the modern business world?
Is modesty rather than self-assertion regarding his own merits and
abilities the better policy for an employee?
Are substantial, home-keeping girls or girls rather fast and frivolous the
more likely to obtain good husbands?
Is it desirable for a young man to take out life insurance?
Is self-education better than collegiate training?
Should one always tell the truth?
2. Discuss as concretely as possible the topics you have selected from 1.
Use illustrations drawn from life.
3. Restate in concrete terms such generalizations as the following:
Experience is the best teacher.
Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
The bravest are the tenderest.
Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Pride goeth before destruction.
The evil that men do lives after them.
4. Compare the abstract statement "Truths and high ethical principles are
received by various men in various ways" with the concrete presentation of
the same idea in Appendix 3. Which expression of the thought would be the
more easily understood by the average person? Why? Which would you
yourself remember the longer? Why?
5. Compare the statement "The second period of a human being's life is
that of his reluctant attendance at school" with Shakespeare's picture of
the schoolboy in Appendix 4.
6. Burke, near the close of his speech (Appendix 2), presents an idea,
first in general terms, and then in specific terms, thus: "No contrivance
can prevent the effect of...distance in weakening government. Seas roll,
and months pass, between the order and the execution, and the want of a
speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system."
Find elsewhere in Burke's speech and in the editorial (Appendix I) general
assertions which may be made more forceful by restatement in specific
terms, and supply these specific restatements.
7. State in your own words the general thought or teaching of the Parable
of the Prodigal Son. (_Luke_ 15: 11-24.)
8. Make the following statements more concrete:
In front of our house was a tree that at a certain season of the year
displayed highly colored foliage.
A celebrated orator said: "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
On the table were some viands that assailed my nostrils agreeably and
others that put into my mouth sensations of anticipated enjoyment.
From this window above the street I can hear a variety of noises by day
and a variety of different noises by night.
As he groped through the pitch-dark room he could feel many articles of
furniture.
9. State in general terms the thought of the following sentences:
A burnt child dreads the fire.
A stitch in time saves nine.
A cat may look at a king.
A barking dog never bites.
If his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
If two men ride a horse, one must ride behind.
Stone walls do not a prison make.
A merry heart goes all the day.
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.
As the twig is bent, so the tree is inclined.
10. Describe a town as seen from a particular point of view, or at a
particular time of day, or under particular atmospheric conditions. Make
your description as concrete as possible.
11. Compare your description with this from Stevenson: "The town came down
the hill in a cascade of brown gables, bestridden by smooth white roofs,
and spangled here and there with lighted windows." Stevenson's sentence
contains twenty-five words. How many of them are "color" words? How many
"motion" words? How many of the first twenty-five words in your
description appeal to one or another of the five senses?
12. Narrate as vividly as possible an experience in your own life. Compare
what you have written with the account of Crusoe's escape to the island
(Appendix 5). Which narrative is the more concrete? How much?
<2. Literal vs. Figurative Terms>
Phraseology is literal when it says exactly what it means; is figurative
when it says one thing, but really means another. Thus "He fought bravely"
is literal; "He was a lion in the fight" is figurative. Literal
phraseology as a rule appeals to our scientific or understanding
faculties; figurative to our emotional faculties. Here again, as with
abstraction and concreteness, you should learn to express yourself by
either method.
Both have their advantages and their drawbacks. We all admire the man who
has observed, and can state, accurately. It is upon this belief of ours in
the literal that Defoe shrewdly traffics. (See Appendix 5.) He does not
stir us as some writers do, but he gains our implicit confidence. Dame
Quickly, on the contrary, makes egregious use of the literal. (See
paragraph above EXERCISE - Wordiness III above.) Her facts are accurate,
yes; but how strictly, how unsparingly accurate! And how many of them are
beside the point! She quite convinces us that the devotee of the literal
may be dull.
An advantage of the figurative also is that it may make meanings lucid.
Thus when Burke near the close of his discussion (Appendix 2) wishes to
make it clear that by a law of nature the authority of extensive empires
is slighter in its more remote territories, he has recourse to a figure of
speech: "In large bodies, the circulation of power must be less vigorous
at the extremities. Nature has said it." More often, however, the function
of the figurative is to drive home a thought or a mood of which a mere
statement would leave us unmoved--to make us _feel_ it. Thus Burke
said of the Americans "Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and
attached on this specific point of taxing." He added: "Here they felt its
pulse, and as they found that beat they thought themselves sick or sound."
Had you been one of his Parliamentary hearers, would not that second
sentence have made more real and more important the colonial attitude to
taxation? The poets of course make frequent and noble use of the
figurative. This is how Coleridge tells us that the descent of a tropical
night is sudden:
"The sun's rim dips; the stars rush out;
At one stride comes the dark."
The words _rush out_ and _at one stride comes_ convert the stars
and the darkness into vast beings or at least vast personal forces; the
comparisons are so natural as to seem inevitable; we are transported to
the very scene and feel the overwhelming abruptness of the nightfall. But
if a figure of speech seems artificial, if it is strained or far-fetched
or merely decorative, it subtracts from the effectiveness of the passage.
Thus when Tennyson says:
"When the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free
In the silken sail of infancy."
we must stop and ponder before we perceive that what he means is "When I
was a happy child." The figure is like an exotic plant rather than a
natural outgrowth of the soil; it appears to us something thought up and
stuck on; it is a parasite rather than a helper.
Of course, as with abstraction and concreteness, you should develop
facility in gliding from literalness to figurativeness and back again. But
you are always to remember that your gymnastics are not to militate
against verbal concord. You must never set words scowling and growling at
each other through injudicious combinations like this: "She was five feet,
four and three-quarter inches high, had a small, round scar between her
nose and her left cheek-bone, and moved with the lissom and radiant grace
of a queen."
EXERCISE - Literal
1. Give the specifications for a house you intend to build.
2. Make a list of comparisons (as to a nest, a haven, a goal) to show what
such a house might mean in the life of a man. Expand as many of these
comparisons as you can, but do not carry the process to absurd lengths.
(In the figure of the nest you may mention the parent birds, their
activities, the nestlings; in the figure of the haven you may mention the
quiet, sheltered waters in contrast to the turbulent billows outside; in
the figure of the goal you may mention the struggle necessary to reach
it.)
3. Describe the looks of the house. Use as many figures of speech as you
can. If you can find no appropriate figures, at least make your words
specific.
4. Give a surveyor's or a tax assessor's or a conveyancer's description of
a piece of land. Then describe the land through figures of speech which
will vivify its outward appearance or its emotional significance to the
owner.
5. Observe that the Parable of the Sower (Appendix 3) is an extended
figure of speech. Is the main figure effective? Are its detailed
applications effective?
6. The Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4) is also an extended figure of
speech. Does it, as Shakespeare intends, bring vividly to your
consciousness the course, motives, stages, evolution of a human being's
life? There are several subsidiary figures. Do these add force,
definiteness to the picture Shakespeare is drawing at that moment?
7. Observe from Appendix 3, Appendix 4, and the sentences listed in
Activity 9 for EXERCISE - Abstract above, that a thing meant to be
concrete is likely to be stated figuratively.
8. Examine The Castaway (Appendix 5) for its proportionate use of literal
and figurative elements. See Activity 2 of EXERCISE - Wordiness III above
for a statement of Defoe's purpose. Could he have effected this purpose so
well had he employed more figures of speech?
9. Examine Appendix 2 for its use of figures. Are the figures appropriate
to the subject matter? Are there enough of them?
10. Galvanize the thought of any sentence or paragraph in editorial
(Appendix 1) by the use of a figure of speech.
11. Summarize or illustrate your opinion on any of the topics listed in
Activity 1 for EXERCISE - Discourse, through the employment of figure of
speech.
12. Are these figures effective?
Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
The flower of our young manhood is scaling the ladder of success.
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
Silence, like a poultice, comes
To heal the blows of sound.
In my head
Many thoughts of trouble come,
Like to flies upon a plum!
Let me tell you first about those barnacles that clog the wheels of
society by poisoning the springs of rectitude with their upas-like eye.
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil.
Life, like a dome of many-colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of eternity.
Mountains stood out like pimples or lay like broken welts
across the habitable ground.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
I saw him in Russia, where the infantry of the snow and the cavalry of the
wild blast scattered his legions like winter's withered leaves.
13. Recast the following sentences to eliminate the clashing of literal
and figurative elements:
Life is like a rich treasure entrusted to us, and to sustain it we must
have three square meals a day.
She glanced at the mirror, but did not really see herself. She was trying
to puzzle out the right course, and could only see as through a glass
darkly.
Arming himself with the sword of zeal and the buckler of integrity, he
wrote the letter.
He swept the floor every morning, and was a ray of sunshine in the office.
He also emptied the waste baskets and cleaned the cuspidors.
<3. Connotation>
The connotation of a word is the subtle implication, the emotional
association it carries--often quite apart from its dictionary definition.
Thus the words _house_ and _home_ in large measure overlap in
meaning, but emotionally they are not equivalents at all. You can say
_house_ without experiencing any sensation whatever, but if you utter
the word _home_ it will call back, however slightly, tender and
cherished recollections. _Bald heads_ and _gray hair_ are both
indicative of age; but you would pronounce the former in disparaging
allusion to elderly persons, and the latter with sentiments of veneration.
You would say, of a clodpole that he plays the _fiddle_, but of Fritz
Kreisler that he plays the _violin_. And just as you unconsciously
adapt words to feelings in these obvious instances, you must learn, on
peril of striking false notes verbally, to do so when distinctions are
less gross.
Moreover circumstance as well as sentiment may control the connotation of
a word. A word or phrase may have a double or triple connotation, and
depend upon vocal inflection, upon gesture, upon the words with which it
is linked, upon the experience of speaker or hearer, upon time, place, and
external fact, or upon other forces outside it for the sense in which it
is to be taken. You may be called "old dog" in an insulting manner, or
(especially if a slap on the shoulder accompanies the phrase) in an
affectionate manner. You may properly say, "Calhoun had logic on his
side"; add, however, the words "but his face was to the past," and you
spoil the sentence,--for _face_ gives a reflex connotation to
_side_, slight perhaps and momentary, but disconcerting. Think over
the funny stories you have heard. Many of them turn, you will find, on the
outcropping of new significance in a phrase because of its environment.
Thus the anecdote of the servant who had been instructed to summon the
visiting English nobleman by tapping on his bedroom door and inquiring,
"My lord, have you yet risen?" and who could only stammer, "My God! ain't
you up yet?" Or the anecdote of the minister who in a sermon on the
Parable of the Prodigal Son told how a young man living dissolutely in a
city had been compelled to send to the pawnbroker first his overcoat, next
his suit, next his silk shirt, and finally his very underclothing--"and
then," added the minister, "he came to himself." Only by unresting
vigilance can you evade verbal discords, if not of this magnitude, at
least of much frequency and stylistic harm.
EXERCISE - Connotation
1. Note the contrast in emotional suggestion that comes to you from
hearing the words:
"Sodium chloride" and "salt"
"A test-tube of H2O" and "a cup of cold water"
"A pair of brogans" and "a little empty shoe"
"Bump" and "collide"
"A brilliant fellow" and "a flashy fellow"
"Bungled it" and "did not succeed"
"Tumble" and "fall"
"Dawn" and "6 A.M."
"Licked" and "worsted"
"Fat" and "plump"
"Wept" and "blubbered"
"Cheek" and "self-assurance"
"Stinks" and "disagreeable odors"
"Steal" and "embezzle"
"Thievishness" and "kleptomania"
"Educated" and "highbrow"
"Job" and "position"
"Told a lie" and "fell into verbal inexactitude"
"A drunkard" (a stranger) and "a drunkard" (your father).
2. Make a list of your own similar to that in Exercise 1.
3. Read the sentences listed in EXERCISE - Slovenliness III and IV. What
do these sentences suggest to you as to the social and mental
qualifications of the person who employs them?
4. Read the second paragraph of Appendix 2. What does it suggest to you as
to Burke's social and mental qualifications?
5. Suppose you were told that a passage of twenty-eight lines contains the
following expressions: "mewling and puking," "whining schoolboy,"
"satchel," "sighing like furnace," "round belly," "spectacles on nose,"
"shrunk shank," "sans [without] teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything." Would you believe the passage is poetry?--that its total
effect is one of poetic elevation? Read the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix
4). _Is_ it poetry? How does Shakespeare reconcile the general poetic
tone with such expressions as those quoted?
6. What is wrong with the connotation of the following?
The servant told us that the young ladies were all in.
All my poor success is due to you.
He insisted on carrying a revolver, and so the college authorities fired
him.
The carpenter too had his castles in Spain.
He rested his old bones by the wayside, and his gaunt dog stood sniffing
at them.
On the other hand, he had a white elephant to dispose of.
When he came to the forks of the road, he showed he was not on the square.
Body, for funeral purposes, must be sold at once. City Automobile Agency.
7. Can you express the following ideas in other words without sacrifice of
emotional suggestion? Try.
The music, yearning like a god in pain.
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
Old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago.
It was night in the lonesome October.
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars, that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight.
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot.
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,--
'Tis the natural way of living.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made of, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
8. With the most connotative words at your command describe the following:
Your first sweetheart
A solemn experience
A ludicrous experience
A terrifying experience
A mysterious experience
The circus parade you saw in your boyhood
A servant girl
A dude
An odd character you have known
The old homestead
Your boarding house
A scene suggesting the intense heat of a midsummer day
Night on the river
The rush for the subway car
The traffic policeman
Your boss
Anything listed in the first part of Activity 9 of EXERCISE - Discourse.
III
WORDS IN COMBINATION: HOW MASTERED
The more dangerous pitfalls for those who use words in combination--as all
of us do--have been pointed out. The best ways of avoiding these pitfalls
have also been indicated. But our work together has thus far been chiefly
negative. To be sure, many tasks assigned for your performance have been
constructive as well as precautionary; but _the end_ held ever before
you has been the avoidance of feeble or ridiculous diction. In the present
chapter we must take up those aspects of the mastery of words in
combination which are primarily positive.
Before coming to specific aspects and assignments, however, we shall do
well to consider certain large general purposes and methods.
First, what kind of vocabulary do we wish to acquire? A facile, readily
used one? An accurate one? Or one as nearly as may be comprehensive? The
three kinds do not necessarily coexist. The possession of one may even
hinder and retard the acquisition of another. Thus if we seek a ready
vocabulary, an accurate vocabulary may cause us to halt and hesitate for
words which shall correspond with the shadings of our thought and emotion,
and a wide vocabulary may embarrass us with the plenitude of our verbal
riches.
But _may_ is not _must_. Though the three kinds of vocabulary
may interfere with each other, there is no reason, except superficially,
why they should. Our purpose should be, therefore, to acquire not a single
kind but all three. We should be like the boy who, when asked whether he
would have a small slice of apple pie or a small slice of pumpkin pie,
replied resolutely, "Thank you, I will take a large piece of both."
That the assignments in this chapter may help you develop a vocabulary
which shall be promptly responsive to your needs, you should perform some
of them rapidly. Your thoughts and feelings regarding a topic may be
anything but clear, but you must not pause to clarify them. The words best
suited to the matter may not be instantly available, but you must not
tarry for accessions of language. Stumble, flounder if you must, yea,
rearrange your ideas even as you present them, but press resolutely ahead,
comforting yourself with the assurance that in the heat and stress of
circumstances a man rarely does his work precisely as he wishes. When you
have finished the discussion, repeat it immediately--and with no more
loitering than before. You will find that your ideas have shifted and
enlarged, and that more appropriate words have become available. Further
repetitions will assist you the more. But the goal you should set
yourself, as you proceed from topic to topic, is the attainment of the
power to be at your best in the first discussion. You may never reach this
goal, but at least you may approach it.
That the assignments in this chapter may assist you in making your
vocabulary accurate, you should perform some of them in another way. When
you have selected a topic, you should first of all think it through. In
doing this, arrange your ideas as consistently and logically as you can,
and test them with your reason. Then set them forth in language which
shall be lucid and exact. Tolerate no slipshod diction, no vaguely
rendered general meanings. Send every sentence, every word like a skilful
drop-kick--straight above the crossbar. When you have done your best with
the topic, lay it by for a space. Time is a great revealer of hidden
defects, and you must not regard your labors as ended until your
achievement is the maturest possible for you. If the quantity of what you
accomplish is meager, suffer no distress on that account. The desideratum
now is not quantity, but quality.
The assignments in this chapter will do less toward making your vocabulary
wide than toward making it facile and precise. To be sure, they will now
and then set you to hunting for words that are new. Better still, they
will give you a mastery over some of your outlying words--words known to
your eyes or ears but not to your tongue. But these advantages will be
somewhat incidental. Means for the systematic extension of your verbal
domain into regions as yet unexplored by you, are reserved for the later
chapters of this book.
<2. A Vocabulary for Speech or for Writing?>
In the second place, are we to develop a vocabulary for oral discourse or
a vocabulary for writing? It may be that our chief impediment or our chief
ambition lies in one field rather than in the other. Nevertheless we
should strive for a double mastery; we ought to speak well _and_
write well. Indeed the two powers so react upon each other that we ought
to cultivate both for the sake of either. True, some men, though inexpert
as writers, have made themselves proficient as speakers; or though
shambling and ineffective as speakers, have made themselves proficient as
writers. But this is not natural or normal. Moreover these men might have
gleaned more abundantly from their chosen field had they not shut it off
from the acres adjacent. Fences waste space and curtail harvests.
The assignments in this chapter are of such a nature that you may perform
them either orally or in writing. You should speak and write alternately,
sometimes on the same topic, sometimes on topics taken in rotation.
In your oral discussions you should perhaps absent yourself at first from
human auditors. A bedstead or a dresser will not make you self-conscious
or in any way distract your attention, and it will permit you to sit down
afterward and think out the degree of your failure or success. Ultimately,
of course, you must speak to human beings--in informal conversations at
the outset, in more ambitious ways later as occasion permits.
In your writing you may find it advantageous to make preliminary outlines
of what you wish to say. But above all, you must be willing to blot, to
revise, to take infinite pains. You should remember the old admonition
that easy reading is devilish hard writing.
These purposes and methods are general. We now come to the specific fields
in which we may with profit cultivate words in combination. Of these
fields there are four.
If you read a foreign language, whether laboriously or with ease, you
should make this power assist you to amass a good English vocabulary.
Take compositions or parts of compositions written in the foreign tongue,
and turn them into idiomatic English. How much you should translate
at a given time depends upon your leisure and your adeptness. Employ all
the methods--the spontaneous, the carefully perfected, the oral, the
written--heretofore explained in this chapter. In your final work on a
passage you should aim at a faultless rendition, and should spend time and
ransack the lexicons rather than come short of this ideal.
The habit of translation is an excellent habit to keep up. For the study
of an alien tongue not only improves your English, but has compensations
in itself.
EXERCISE - Translation
1. Translate from any accessible book in the foreign language you can
read.
2. Subscribe for a period of at least two or three months for a newspaper
or magazine in that language, if it is a modern one. Translate as before,
but give most of your time to rapid oral translation for a real or
imaginary American hearer.
3. When you have completed your final written translation of a passage
from the foreign language, make yourself master of all the English words
you have not previously (1) known or (2) used, but have encountered in
your work of translation.
<2. Mastery through Paraphrasing>
It may be that you are not familiar with a foreign language. At any rate
you have some knowledge of English. Put this knowledge to use in
paraphrasing; for thus you will enrich your vocabulary and make it surer
and more flexible. The process of paraphrasing is simple, though the
actual work is not easy. You take passages written in English--the more of
them the better, and the more diversified the better--and both reproduce
their substance and incarnate their mood in words you yourself shall
choose.
You may have a passage before you and paraphrase it unit by unit. More
often, however, you should follow the plan adopted by Franklin when he
emulated Addison by rewriting the _Spectator Papers_. That is, you
should steep yourself in the thought and emotion of a piece of writing,
and then lay the piece aside until its wording has faded from your memory,
when you should reëmbody the substance in language that seems to you
natural and fitting. Much of the benefit will come from your comparing
your version, as Franklin did his, with the original. When you perceive
that you have fallen short, you should consider the respects wherein your
inferiority lies--and should make another attempt, and yet another, and
another. When you perceive that in any way you have surpassed the
original, you should feel a just pride in your achievement--and should
resolve that next time your cause for pride shall be greater still. Even
after you have desisted from formal paraphrasing, you should cling to the
habit, formed at this time, of observing any notable felicities in
whatever you read and of comparing them with the expression you yourself
would likely have employed.
EXERCISE - Paraphrasing
1. Paraphrase the editorial in Appendix 1. You should improve upon the
original. Keep trying until you do.
2. Paraphrase the second paragraph in Burke's speech (Appendix 2). Burke
lacked the cheap tricks of the ordinary orator, but his discussions were
based upon a comprehensive knowledge of facts, a sympathetic understanding
of human nature, a vast depth and range of thought, and a well-meditated
political philosophy. In short, he is a model for _elaborated_
discussions. Set forth the leading thought of this paragraph; you can give
it in fewer words than he employs. But try setting it forth with his full
accompaniments of reflection and information; you will be bewildered at
his crowding so much into such small compass.
3. Try to rival the pregnant conciseness of the Parable of the Sower
(Appendix 3).
4. Paraphrase in prose the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4). Catch if
possible the mood, the "atmosphere," of each of the pictures painted by
Shakespeare. Condense your paraphrase as much as you can.
5. In each of the preceding exercises compare your vocabulary with that of
the original as to size, precision, and the grace and ease with which
words are put together. Does the original employ terms unfamiliar to you?
If so, look up their meaning and make them yours; then observe, when you
next paraphrase the passage, whether your mastery of these terms has
improved your expression.
<3. Mastery through Discourse at First Hand>
Models have their use, but you can also work without models. It is
imperative that you should. You must learn to discuss, explain, analyze,
argue, narrate, and describe for yourself. Here again you should diversify
your materials to the utmost, not only that you may become well-rounded
and versatile in your ability to set forth ideas and feelings in words,
but also that your knowledge and your sensibility may receive stimulation.
It is feasible to begin by discussing or explaining. Most of the
intercourse conducted through language consists in either discussion or
explanation. Analysis, ordinarily, is almost ignored. Argument is indulged
in, and so is description (though less freely), but they are of the
bluntest and broadest. Narration--the recounting of incidents of everyday
existence--is, however, widely employed.
In your work of discussion or explanation you may seize upon any current
topic--industrial, social, political, or what not--that comes into your
mind. Or you may make a list of such topics, writing each on a separate
piece of paper; may jumble the slips in a hat; and may thus have always at
your elbow a collection of satisfactory themes from which you may take one
at random. Or you may invest in language of your own selection the
substance of an address or sermon you have heard, or give the burden of
some important conversation in which you have participated, or explain the
tenor of an article you have read. You should of course try to interest
your hearers, and above all, you should impart to what you say complete
clarity.
In analyzing you should select as your topic a process fairly obscure, the
implications of a certain statement or argument, the results to be
expected from some action or policy that has been advocated, or the exact
matter at issue between two disputants. Any topic for discussion,
explanation, or argument may be treated analytically. Your analysis in its
final form should be so carefully considered that its soundness cannot be
impeached.
In arguing you may take any subject under the sun, from baseball to
Bolshevism, for all of them are debated with vehemence. Any topic for
discussion or explanation becomes, when approached from some particular
angle, material for argument. Thus the initial topic in the exercise that
follows is "The aeroplane's future as a carrier of mail." You may convert
it into a question for debate by making it read: "The aeroplane is
destined to supplant the railroad as a carrier of mail," or "The aeroplane
is destined to be used increasingly as a carrier of transcontinental
mail." In arguing you may propose for yourself either of two objectives:
(1) to silence your opponent, (2) to refute, persuade, and win him over
fairly. The achievement of the first end calls for bluster and perhaps a
grim, barbaric strength; you must do as Johnson did according to
Goldsmith's famous dictum--if your pistol misses fire, you must knock your
adversary down with the butt end of it. This procedure, though inartistic
to be sure, is in some contingencies the only kind that will serve. But
you should cultivate procedure of a type more urbane. Let your very
reasonableness be the most potent weapon you wield. To this end you should
form the habit of looking for good points on both sides of a question. As
a still further precaution against contentiousness you should uphold the
two sides successively.
In narrating you should, as a rule, stick to simple occurrences, though
you may occasionally vary your work by summarizing the plot of a novel or
giving the gist and drift of big historical events. You should confine
yourself, in large part, to incidents in which you have been personally
involved, or which you yourself have witnessed, as mishaps, unexpected
encounters, bickerings, even rescues or riots. You should omit
non-essentials and make the happening itself live for your hearer; if you
can so interest him in it that he will not notice your manner of telling
it, your success is but the greater.
Finally, in describing you should deal for the most part with beings,
objects, and appearances familiar to you. Description is usually hard to
make vivid. This is because the objects and scenes are likely to be
immobile and (at least when told about) to lack distinctiveness. Try,
therefore, to lay hold of the peculiar quality of the thing described, and
use words suggestive of color and motion. Moreover be brief. Long
descriptions are sure to be wearisome.
EXERCISE - Discourse
1. Select topics from the following list for discussion or explanation:
The aeroplane's future as a carrier of mail
The commercial future of the aeroplane
A recent scientific (or mechanical or electrical) invention
A better type of newspaper--its contents and makeup
A better type of newspaper--how it can be secured
The connection between the advertising and news departments
of a newspaper--the actual condition
The connection between the advertising and news departments
of a newspaper--the ideal
Special features in a newspaper that are popular
A single standard for the sexes--is it possible?
A single standard for the sexes--how it can be attained (or approximated)
Should the divorce laws be made more stringent?
Should a divorced person be prohibited from remarrying?
What further marriage restrictions should be placed upon the
physically or mentally unfit?
What further measures should be taken by the cities (states, nation) for
the protection of motherhood?
Is the division of men into strongly contrasted groups as to wealth
one of nature's necessities, or is it the result of a social and
economic system?
Some shortcomings of the labor unions
Are the shortcomings of the labor unions accidental or inherent?
Some ways of bettering the condition of the working classes
How municipal (state, national) bureaus for finding employment
for the laborer may become more serviceable
Wrongs committed by big business (or some branch of it)
Should a man's income above a stipulated amount be confiscated
by the government?
Income taxes--what exemptions should be granted?
The right basis for business--competition or coöperation?
Are the courts equally just to labor and capital?
How can legal procedure be changed to enable individuals to secure just
treatment from corporations without resorting to prolonged and expensive
lawsuits?
Where our interests clash with those of Great Britain
How our relations with Great Britain may be further improved
How our relations with Japan may be further improved
How may closer commercial relations with other countries be promoted?
What to do about the railroads and railroad rates
A natural resource that should be conserved or restored
Do high tariffs breed international ill-will?
Should we have a high tariff at this juncture?
To what extent should osteopathy (chiropractic) be permitted
(or protected) by law?
What is wrong with municipal government in my city
How woman suffrage affects local government
How to make rural life more attractive
The importance of the rotation of crops
The race problem as it affects my community
The class problem as it affects my community
The school-house as a social center
How to Americanize the alien elements in our population
To what extent, if at all, should foreign-born citizens of our
country be encouraged to preserve their native traditions and culture?
Censorship of the moving picture
Educational possibilities of the moving picture
How to bring about improvement in the quality of the moving picture
The effect of the moving picture upon legitimate drama
A church that men will attend
How young men may be attracted to the churches
How far shall doctrine be insisted upon by the churches?
To what extent shall the church concern itself with social
and economic problems?
To what extent, if at all, shall Sunday diversions be restricted?
The advantages of using the free public library
Can the cities give children in the slums better opportunities for
physical (mental, moral) development?
Should all cities be required to establish zoölogical gardens,
as well as schools, for the children?
How my city might improve its system of public parks
The most interesting thing about the work I am in
Opportunities in the work I am in
The qualities called for in the work I am in
The ideals of my associates
Something I have learned about life
Something I have learned about human nature
A book that has influenced me, and why
A person who has influenced me, and how
My favorite sport or recreation
Why baseball is so popular
What I could do for the people around me
What I should like for the people around me to do for me.
2. Discuss or explain the ideas listed in Exercise 3 for 'Abstract vs.
Concrete' in "Words in Combination: Some Pitfalls" above.
3. Analyze the debatable questions included in the two preceding exercises
or suggested by them. That is, find the issues in each question, and show
what each disputant must prove and what he must refute.
4. Analyze the results to be expected from the adoption of some policy or
course of action by:
A newspaper
A business firm
The city
The farmers
The producers in some business or industry
The consumers
The retail merchants of your city
Some group of reformers
Some social group
Those interested in a social activity, as dancing
Your neighbors
Yourself.
5. Analyze or explain:
The testing of seed grain
How to raise potatoes (any other vegetable)
How to utilize and apportion the space in your garden
How to keep an automobile in good shape
How to run an automobile (motor boat)
How to make a rabbit trap
How to lay out a camp
How to catch trout (bass, codfish, tuna fish, lobsters)
How to conduct a public meeting
How a bill is introduced and passed in a legislative body
How food is digested
How to extract oxygen from water
How a fish breathes
How gold is mined
How wireless messages are sent
How your favorite game is played
How to survey a tract of land
How stocks are bought and sold on margins
How public opinion is formed
How a man ought to form his opinions
The responsibility of individuals to society
The responsibility of society to the individual.
6. Argue one side or the other, or the two successively, of
queries contained or implied in Exercises 1 and 2.
7. Argue one side or the other, or the two successively, of queries listed
in Exercise 1 in EXERCISE - Abstract.
8. Give a narrative of:
The earning of your first dollar
How somebody met his match
An amusing incident
An anxious moment
A surprise
The touchdown
That fatal seventh inning
How you got the position
Why you missed the train
When you were lost
Your first trip on the railroad (a motor boat, a merry-go-round,
snowshoes, a burro)
A mishap
How Jenkins skated
Your life until the present (a summary)
Something you have heard your father tell
What happened to your uncle
Your partner's (chum's) escapade
Meeting an old friend
Meeting a bore
A conversation you have overheard
When Myrtle eavesdropped
When the girls didn't know Algy was in the parlor
A public happening that interests you
An incident you have read in the papers
An incident from your favorite novel
Backward Ben at the party
Something that happened to you today.
9. Describe ...
For the mood or general "atmosphere":
Anything you deem suitable in Activity 8 in EXERCISE - Connotation.
An old, deserted house
Your birthplace as you saw it in manhood
The view from an eminence
A city as seen from a roof garden by night
Your mother's Bible
A barnyard scene
The lonely old negro at the supper table
A new immigrant gazing out upon the ocean he has crossed
The downtown section at closing hour
A scene of quietude
A scene of bustle and confusion
A richly colored scene
A scene of dejection
A scene of wild enthusiasm
A scene of dulness or stagnation.
With attention to homely detail:
The old living-room
My aunt's dresses
Barker's riding-horse
The business street of the village
A cabin in the mountains
The office of a man approaching bankruptcy
The Potters' backyard
The second-hand store
The ugliest man.
For general accuracy and vividness:
The organ-grinder
The signs of an approaching storm
The arrival of the train
Mail-time at the village post office
The crowd at the auction
The old fishing-boat
A country fair (or a circus)
The inside of a theater (or a church)
The funeral procession
The political rally
The choir.
<4. Mastery through Adapting Discourse to Audience>
For convenience, we have heretofore assumed that ideas and emotions,
together with such expression of them as shall be in itself adequate and
faithful, comprise the sole elements that have to be reckoned with in the
use of words in combination. But as you go out into life you will find
that these things, however complete they may seem, are not in practice
sufficient. Another factor--the human--must have its place in our
equation. You do not speak or write in a vacuum. Your object, your
ultimate object at least, in building up your vocabulary is to address men
and women; and among men and women the varieties of training, of stations,
of outlooks, of sentiments, of prejudices, of caprices are infinite. To
gain an unbiased hearing you must take persistent cognizance of flesh and
blood.
In adapting discourse to audience you must have a supple and attentive
mind and an impressionable and swiftly responsive temperament as well as a
wide, accurate, and flexible vocabulary. Unless you are a fool, a zealot,
or an incorrigible adventurer, you will not broach a subject at all to
which your hearers feel absolute indifference or hostility. Normally you
should pick a subject capable of interesting them. In presenting it you
should pay heed to both your matter and your manner. You should emphasize
for your listeners those aspects of the subject which they will most
respond to or most need to hear, whether or not the phases be such as you
would emphasize with other auditors. You should also speak in the fashion
you deem most effective with them, whether or not it be one to which your
own natural instincts prompt you.
Let us say you are discussing conditions in Europe. You must speak in one
way to the man who has traveled and in an entirely different way to the
man who has never gone abroad--in one way to the well-read man, in an
entirely different way to the ignoramus. Let us say you are discussing
urban life, urban problems. You must speak in one way to the man who lives
in the city, in another to the man who lives in the country. Let us say
you are discussing the labor problem. You must speak in one way to
employers, in another to employees, possibly in a third to men thrown out
of jobs, possibly in a fourth to the general public. Let us say you are
discussing education, or literature, or social tendencies, or mechanical
principles or processes, or some great enterprise or movement. You must
speak in one way to cultivated hearers and in another to men in the
street, and if you are a specialist addressing specialists, you will cut
the garment of your discourse to their particular measure.
The same principle holds regardless of whether you expound, analyze,
argue, recount, or describe. You must always keep a finger on the mental
or emotional pulse of those whom you address. But your problem varies
slightly with the form of discourse you adopt. In explanation, analysis,
and argument the chief barriers you encounter are likely to be those of
the mind; you must make due allowance for the intellectual limitations of
your auditors, though many who have capacity enough may for some cause or
other be unreceptive to ideas. In description you must reckon with the
imaginative faculty, with the possibility that your hearers cannot
visualize what you tell them--and you must make your words brief. In
narration you must vivify emotional torpor; but lest in your efforts to
inveigle boredom you yourself should induce it, you must have a wary eye
for signals of distress.
EXERCISE - Adapting
1. Explain to (a) a rich man, (b) a poor man the blessings of poverty.
2. Discuss before (a) farmers, (b) merchants the idea that farmers
(merchants) make a great deal of money.
3. Explain to (a) the initiate, (b) the uninitiate some piece of
mechanism, or some phase of a human activity or interest, which you know
at first hand and regarding which technical (or at least not generally
understood) terms are employed. (The exact subject depends, of course,
upon your own observation or experience; you are sure to be familiar
with something that most people know hazily, if at all. Bank clerk,
chess player, bridge player, stenographer, journalist, truck driver,
backwoods-man, mechanic--all have special knowledge of one kind or another
and can use the particular terms it calls for.)
4. Explain to (a) a supporter of the winning team, (b) a supporter of the
losing team why the baseball game came out as it did.
5. Discuss before (a) a Democratic, (b) a Republican audience your reasons
for voting the Democratic (Republican) ticket in the coming election.
6. Explain to (a) your own family, (b) the man who can lend you the money,
why you wish to mortgage your house (any piece of property).
7. Explain to the owner of an ill-conducted business why he should sell
it, and to a shrewd business man why he should buy it.
8. Discuss before (a) old men, (b) young men, (c) women the desirability
of men's giving up their seats in street cars to women. (Also modify the
question by requiring only young men to give up their seats, and then only
to old people of either sex, to sick people, or to people with children in
their arms.)
9. Explain the necessity of restricting immigration to (a) prospective
immigrants, (b) immigrants just granted admission to the country, (c)
persons just refused admission, (d) exploiters of cheap labor, (e)
ordinary citizens.
10. Discuss the taking out of a life insurance policy with (a) a man not
interested, (b) a man interested but uncertain what a policy is like, (c)
a man interested and informed but doubtful whether he can spare the money,
(d) the man's wife (his prospective beneficiary), whose desires will have
weight with him.
11. Discuss the necessity of a reduction in wages with (a) unscrupulous
employers, (b) kind-hearted employers, (c) the employees.
12. Advocate higher public school taxes before (a) men with children, (b)
men without children.
13. Advocate a further regulation of the speed of automobiles before (a)
automobile-owners, (b) non-owners.
14. Urge advocacy of some reform upon (a) a clergyman, (b) a candidate for
office.
15. Combat before (a) advertisers, (b) a public audience, (c) a lawmaking
body, the defacement of landscapes by advertising billboards.
16. Describe life in the slums before (a) a rural audience, (b) charitable
persons, (c) rich people in the cities who know little of conditions among
the poor.
17. Describe the typical evening of a spendthrift in a city to (a) a poor
man, (b) a miser, (c) the spendthrift's mother, (d) his employer, (e) a
detective who suspects him of theft.
18. Describe the city of Washington (any other city) to (a) a countryman,
(b) a traveler who has not visited this particular city. (If it is
Washington you describe, describe it also for children in whom you wish to
inculcate patriotism.)
19. Give (a) a youngster, (b) an experienced angler an account of your
fishing trip.
20. Recount for (a) a baseball fan, (b) a girl who has never seen a game,
the occurrences of the second half of the ninth inning.
21. Describe a fight for (a) your friends, (b) a jury.
22. Narrate for (a) children, (b) an audience of adults some historical
event.
23. Give (a) your partner, (b) a reporter an account of a business
transaction you have just completed.
24. Narrate an escapade for (a) your father, (b) your cronies in response
to a toast at a banquet with them.
IV
INDIVIDUAL WORDS: AS VERBAL CELIBATES
Thus far we have studied words as grouped together into phrases,
sentences, paragraphs, whole compositions. We must now enter upon a new
phase of our efforts to extend our vocabulary. We must study words as
individual entities.
You may think the order of our study should be reversed. No great harm
would result if it were. The learning of individual words and the
combining of them into sentences are parallel rather than successive
processes. In our babyhood we do not accumulate a large stock of terms
before we frame phrases and clauses. And our attainment of the power of
continuous iteration does not check our inroads among individual words. We
do the two things simultaneously, each contributing to our success with
the other. There are plenty of analogies for this procedure. A good
baseball player, for instance, tirelessly studies both the minutiae of his
technique (as how to hold a bat, how to stand at the plate) and the big
combinations and possibilities of the game. A good musician keeps
unremitting command over every possible touch of each key and at the same
time seeks sweeping mastery over vast and complex harmonies. So we, if we
would have the obedience of our vocabularies, dare not lag into desultory
attention to either words when disjoined or words as potentially combined
into the larger units of thought and feeling.
We might therefore consider either the individuals first or the groups
first. But the majority of speakers and writers pay more heed to rough
general substance than to separate instruments and items. Hence we have
thought best to begin where most work is going on already--with words in
combination.
As you turn from the groups to the individuals, you must understand that
your labors will be onerous and detailed. You must not assume that by
nature all words are much alike, any more than you assume that all men are
much alike. Of course the similarities are many and striking, and the
fundamental fact is that a word is a word as a man is a man. But you will
be no adept in handling either the one or the other until your knowledge
goes much farther than this. Let us glance first at the human variations.
Each man has his own business, and conducts it in his own way--a way never
absolutely matched with that of any other mortal being. All this you may
see. But besides the man's visible employment, he may be connected in
devious fashions with a score of enterprises the public knows nothing
about. Furthermore he leads a private life (again not precisely
corresponding to that of any other), has his hobbies and aversions, is
stamped with a character, a temperament of his own. In short, though in
thousands of respects he is like his fellows, he has after all no human
counterpart; he is a distinct, individual self. To know him, to use him,
to count upon his service in whatsoever contingency it might bestead you,
you must deem him something more than a member of the great human family.
You must cultivate him personally, cultivate him without weariness or
stint, and undergo inconvenience in so doing.
Even so with a word. Commonplace enough it may seem. But it has its
peculiar characteristics, its activities undisclosed except to the
curious, its subtle inclinations, its repugnances, its latent
potentialities. There is no precise duplicate for it in all the wide
domain of language. To know it intimately and thoroughly, to be on
entirely free terms with it, to depend upon it just so far as dependence
is safe, to have a sure understanding of what it can do and what it
cannot, you must arduously cultivate it. Words, like people, yield
themselves to the worthy. They hunger for friendship--and lack the last
barrier of reserve which hedges all human communion. Thus, linguistically
speaking, you must search out the individuals. You must step aside from
your way for the sake of a new acquaintance; in conversations, in sermons,
in addresses, in letters, in journalistic columns, in standard literature
you must grasp the stranger by the hand and look him straight in the eye.
Nor must you treat cavalierly the words you know already. You must study
them afresh; you must learn them over and learn them better; you must come
to understand them, not only for what they are, but for what they will do.
What, then, is your first task? Somebody has laid down the injunction--
and, as always when anything is enjoined, others have given it currency--
that each day you should learn two new words. So be it,--but which two?
The first two in the dictionary, or hitherto left untouched in your
systematic conquest of the dictionary? The first two you hear spoken? The
first two that stare at you from casual, everyday print? The first two you
can ferret from some technical jargon, some special department of human
interest or endeavor? In any of these ways you may obey the behest of
these mentors. But are not such ways arbitrary, haphazard? And suppose,
after doing your daily stint, you should encounter a word it behooves you
to know. What then? Are you to sulk, to withhold yourself from further
exertion on the plea of a vocabulary-builder's eight-hour day?
To adopt any of the methods designated would be like resolving to invest
in city lots and then buying properties as you encountered them, with no
regard for expenditure, for value in general, or for special
serviceability to you. Surely such procedure would be unbusinesslike. If
you pay out good money, you meditate well whether that which you receive
for it shall compensate you. Likewise if you devote time and effort to
gaining ownership of words, you should exercise foresight in determining
whether they will yield you commensurate returns.
What, then, is the principle upon which, at the outset, you should
proceed? What better than to insure the possession of the words regarding
which you know this already, that you need them and should make them
yours?
The natural way, and the best, to begin is with an analysis of your own
vocabulary. You are of course aware that of the enormous number of words
contained in the dictionary relatively few are at your beck and bidding.
But probably you have made no attempt to ascertain the nature and extent
of your actual linguistic resources. You should make an inventory of the
stock on hand before sending in your order for additional goods.
You will speedily discover that your vocabulary embraces several distinct
classes of words. Of these the first consists of those words which you
have at your tongue's end--which you can summon without effort and use in
your daily speech. They are old verbal friends. Numbered with them, to be
sure, there may be a few with senses and connotations you are ignorant of--
friends of yours, let us say, with a reservation. Even these you may woo
with a little care into uncurbed fraternal abandon. With the exception of
these few, you know the words of the first class so well that without
thinking about it at all you may rely upon their giving you, the moment
you need them, their untempered, uttermost service. You need be at no
further pains about them. They are yours already.
A second class of words is made up of those you speak on occasions either
special or formal--occasions when you are trying, perhaps not to show off,
but at least to put your best linguistic foot foremost. Some of them have
a meaning you are not quite sure of; some of them seem too ostentatious
for workaday purposes; some of them you might have been using but somehow
have not. Words of this class are not your bosom friends. They are your
speaking acquaintance, or perhaps a little better than that. You must
convert them into friends, into prompt and staunch supporters in time of
need. That is to say, you must put them into class one. In bringing about
this change of footing, you yourself must make the advances. You must say,
Go to, I will bear them in mind as I would a person I wished to cultivate.
When occasion rises, you must introduce them into your talk. You will feel
a bit shy about it, for introductions are difficult to accomplish
gracefully; you will steal a furtive glance at your hearer perchance, and
another at the word itself, as you would when first labeling a man "my
friend Mr. Blank." But the embarrassment is momentary, and there is no
other way. Assume a friendship if you have it not, and presently the
friendship will be real. You must be steadfast in intention; for the words
that have held aloof from you are many, and to unloose all at once on a
single victim would well-nigh brand you criminal. But you will make sure
headway, and will be conscious besides that no other class of words in the
language will so well repay the mastering. For these are words you
_do_ use, and need to use more, and more freely--words your own
experience stamps as valuable, if not indeed vital, to you.
The third class of words is made up of those you do not speak at all, but
sometimes write. They are acquaintance one degree farther removed than
those of the second class. Your task is to bring them into class two and
thence into class one--that is, to introduce them into your more formal
speech, and from this gradually into your everyday speech.
The fourth class of words is made up of those you recognize when you hear
or read them, but yourself never employ. They are acquaintance of a very
distant kind. You nod to them, let us say, and they to you; but there the
intercourse ends. Obviously, they are not to be brought without
considerable effort into a position of tried and trusted friendship. And
shall we be absolutely honest?--some of them may not justify such
assiduous care as their complete subjugation would call for. But even
these you should make your feudal retainers. You should constrain them to
membership in class three, and at your discretion in class two.
Apart from the words in class four, you will not to this point have made
actual additions to your vocabulary. But you will have made your
vocabulary infinitely more serviceable. You will be like a man with a host
of friends where before, when his necessities were sorest, he found (along
with some friends) many distant and timid acquaintance.
Outside the bounds of your present vocabulary altogether are the words you
encounter but do not recognize, except (it may be) dimly and uncertainly.
Some counselors would have you look up all such words in a dictionary. But
the task would be irksome. Moreover those who prescribe it are loath to
perform it themselves. Your own candid judgment in the matter is the
safest guide. If the word is incidental rather than vital to the meaning
of the passage that contains it, and if it gives promise of but rarely
crossing your vision again, you should deign it no more than a civil
glance. Plenty of ways will be left you to expend time wisely in the
service of your vocabulary.
EXERCISE - Analysis
1. Make a list of the words in class two of your own vocabulary, and
similar lists for classes three and four. (To make a list for class one
would be but a waste of time.) Procure if you can for this purpose a
loose-leaf notebook, and in the several lists reserve a full page for each
letter of the alphabet as used initially. Do not scamp the lists, though
their proper preparation consume many days, many weeks. Try to make them
really exhaustive. Their value will be in proportion to their accuracy and
fulness.
2. Con the words in each list carefully and repeatedly. Your task is to
transfer these words into a more intimate list--those in class four into
class three, those in three into two, those in two into one. You are then
to promote again the words in the lower classes, except that (if your
judgment so dictates) you may leave the new class three wholly or
partially intact. To carry out this exercise properly you must keep these
words in mind, make them part and parcel of your daily life. (For a
special device for bringing them under subjection, see the next exercise.)
3. To write a word down helps you to remember it. That is why the normal
way to transfer a word from class four into class two is to put it
temporarily into the intermediary class, three; you first _see_ or
_hear_ the word, next _write_ it, afterwards _speak_ it.
The mere writing down of your lists has probably done much to bring the
words written into the circuit of your memory, where you can more readily
lay hold of them. Also it has fortified your confidence in using them; for
to write a word out, letter by letter, makes you surer that you have its
right form. With many of your words you will likely have no more trouble;
they will be at hand, anxious for employment, and you may use them
according to your need. But some of your words will still stubbornly
withhold themselves from memory. Weed these out from your lists, make a
special list of them, copy it frequently, construct short sentences into
which the troublesome words fit. By dint of writing the words so often you
will soon make them more tractable.
4. Make a fifth list of words--those you hear or see printed, do not
understand the meaning of, but yet feel you should know. Obtain and
confirm a grasp of them by the successive processes used with words in the
preceding lists.
Another means of buttressing your command of your present vocabulary is to
define words you use or are familiar with.
Do not bewilder yourself with words (like _and, the_) which call for
ingenuity in handling somewhat technical terms, or with words (like
_thing, affair, condition_) which loosely cover a multitude of
meanings. (You may, however, concentrate your efforts upon some one
meaning of words in the latter group.) Select words with a fairly definite
signification, and express this as precisely as you can. You may
afterwards consult a dictionary for means of checking up on what you have
done. But in consulting it think only of idea, not of form. You are not
training yourself in dictionary definitions, but in the sharpness and
clarity of your understanding of meanings.
About the only rule to be laid down regarding the definition of verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs is that you must not define a word in terms of
itself. Thus if you define _grudgingly_ as "in a grudging manner,"
you do not dissipate your hearer's uncertainty as to what the word means.
If you define it as "unwillingly" or "in a manner that shows reluctance to
yield possession," you give your hearer a clear-cut idea in no wise
dependent upon his ability to understand the word that puzzled him in the
first place.
Normally, in defining a noun you should assign the thing named to a
general class, and to its special limits within that class; in other
words, you should designate its genus and species. You must take care to
differentiate the species from all others comprised within the genus.
You will, in most instances, first indicate the genus and then the
species, but at your convenience you may indicate the species first. Thus
if you affirm, "A cigar is smoking-tobacco in the form of a roll of
tobacco-leaves," you name the genus first and later the characteristics of
the species. You have given a satisfactory definition. If on the other
hand you affirm, "A cigar is a roll of tobacco-leaves meant for smoking,"
you first designate the species and then merely imply the genus. Again you
have given a satisfactory definition; for you have permitted no doubt that
the genus is smoking-tobacco, and have prescribed such limits for the
species as exclude tobacco intended for a pipe or a cigarette.
In defining nouns by the genus-and-species method, restrict the genus to
the narrowest possible bounds. You will thus save the need for exclusions
later. Had you in your first definition of a cigar begun by saying that it
is tobacco, rather than smoking-tobacco, you would have violated this
principle; and you would have had to amplify the rest of your definition
in order to exclude chewing-tobacco, snuff, and the like.
EXERCISE - Definition
1. Define words of your own choosing in accordance with the principles
laid down in the preceding section of the text.
2. Define the following adjectives, adverbs, and verbs:
Miserable Rebuke Wise
Angrily Rapidly Boundless
Swim Paint Whiten
Haughtily Surly Causelessly
3. So define the following nouns as to prevent any possible confusion with
the nouns following them in parentheses:
Wages (salary) Ride (drive)
Planet (star) Truck (automobile)
Watch (clock) Reins (lines)
Jail (penitentiary) Iron (steel)
Vegetable (fruit) Timber (lumber)
Flower (weed) Rope (string)
Hail (sleet, snow) Stock (bond)
Newspaper (magazine) Street car (railway coach)
Cloud (fog) Revolver (rifle, pistol, etc.)
Mountain (hill) Creek (river)
Letter (postal card)
4. While remembering that the following words are of broad signification
and mean different things to different people, define them according to
their meaning to you:
Gentleman Courage
Honesty Beauty
Honor Good manners
Generosity A good while
Charity A little distance
Modesty Long ago
So much for the words which are already yours, or which you can make yours
through your own unaided efforts. For convenience we have grouped with
them some words of a nature more baffling--words of which you know perhaps
but a single aspect rather than the totality, or upon which you can obtain
but a feeble and precarious grip. These slightly known words belong more
to the class now to be considered than to that just disposed of. For we
have now to deal with words over which you can establish no genuine
rulership unless you have outside help.
You must own a dictionary, have it by you, consult it carefully and often.
Do not select one for purchasing upon the basis of either mere bigness or
cheapness. If you do, you may make yourself the owner of an out-of-date
reprint from stereotyped plates. What to choose depends partly upon
personal preference, partly upon whether your need is for
comprehensiveness or compression.
If you are a scholar, _Murray's_ many-volumed _New English
Dictionary_ may be the publication for you; but if you are an ordinary
person, you will probably content yourself with something less expensive
and exhaustive. You will find the _Century Dictionary and
Cyclopedia_, in twelve volumes, or _Webster's New International
Dictionary_ an admirable compilation. The _New Standard
Dictionary_ will also prove useful. All in all, if you can afford it,
you should provide yourself with one or the other of these three large and
authoritative, but not too inclusive, works. Of the smaller lexicons
_Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Webster's Secondary School
Dictionary_, the _Practical Standard Dictionary_, and the _Desk
Standard Dictionary_ answer most purposes well.
A dictionary is not for show. You must learn to use it. What ordinarily
passes for use is in fact abuse. Wherein? Let us say that you turn to your
lexicon for the meaning of a word. Of the various definitions given, you
disregard all save the one which enables the word to make sense in its
present context, or which fits your preconception of what the word should
stand for. Having engaged in this solemn mummery, you mentally record the
fact that you have been squandering your time, and enter into a compact
with yourself that no more will you so do. At best you have tided over a
transitory need, or have verified a surmise. You have not truly
_learned_ the word, brought it into a vassal's relationship with you,
so fixed it in memory that henceforth, night or day, you can take it up
like a familiar tool.
This procedure is blundering, farcical, futile, incorrect. To suppose you
have learned a word by so cursory a glance at its resources is like
supposing you have learned a man through having had him render you some
temporary and trivial service, as lending you a match or telling you the
time of day. To acquaint yourself thoroughly with a word--or a man--
involves effort, application. You must go about the work seriously,
intelligently.
One secret of consulting a dictionary properly lies in finding the
primary, the original meaning of the word. You must go to the source. If
the word is of recent formation, and is native rather than naturalized
English, you have only to look through the definitions given. Such a word
will not cause you much trouble. But if the word is derived from primitive
English or from a foreign language, you must seek its origin, not in one
of the numbered subheads of the definition, but in an etymological record
you will perceive within brackets or parentheses. Here you will find the
Anglo-Saxon (Old English), Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian,
Scandinavian, or other word from which sprang the word you are studying,
and along with this authentic original you may find cognate words in other
languages. These you may examine if you care to observe their resemblance
to your word, but the examination is not necessary. It could teach you
only the earlier or other _forms_ of your word, whereas what you are
after is the original _meaning_. This too is set down within the
brackets; if your search is in earnest, you cannot possible miss it. And
having discovered this original meaning, you must get it in mind; it is
one of the really significant things about the word. Your next step is to
find the present import of the word. Look, therefore, through the modern
definitions. Of these there may be too many, with too delicate shadings in
thought between them, for you to keep all clearly in mind. In fact you
need not try. Consider them of course, but out of them seek mainly the
drift, the central meaning. After a little practice you will be able to
disengage it from the others.
You now know the original sense of the word and its central signification
today. The two may be identical; they may be widely different; but through
reflection or study of the entire definition you will establish some sort
of connection between them. When you have done this, you have mastered the
word. From the two meanings you can surmise the others, wherever and
whenever encountered; for the others are but outgrowths and applications
of them.
One warning will not be amiss. You must not suppose that the terms used in
defining a word are its absolute synonyms, or may be substituted for it
indiscriminately. You must develop a feeling for _the limits_ of the
word, so that you may perceive where its likeness to the other terms
leaves off and its unlikeness begins. Thus if one of the terms employed in
defining _command_ is _control_, you must not assume that the
two words are interchangeable; you must not say, for instance, that the
captain controlled his men to present arms.
Such, abstractly stated, is the way to look up a word in the dictionary.
Let us now take a concrete illustration. Starting with the word
_tension_, let us ascertain what we can about it in the _Century
Dictionary and Cyclopedia_. Our first quest is the original meaning.
For this we consult the bracketed matter. There we meet the French,
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian kinsmen of the word, and learn that they
are traceable to a common ancestor, the Latin _tensio(n)_, which
comes from the Latin verb _tendere_. The meaning of _tensio(n)_
is given as "stretching," that of _tendere_ as "stretch," "extend."
Thus we know of the original word that in form it closely resembles the
modern word, and that in meaning it involves the idea of stretching.
What is the central meaning of the word today? To acquaint ourselves with
this we must run through the definitions listed. Here (in condensed form)
they are. (1) The act of stretching. (2) In _mechanics_, stress or
the force by which something is pulled. (3) In _physics_, a
constrained condition of the particles of bodies. (4) In _statical
electricity_, surface-density. (5) Mental strain, stress, or
application. (6) A strained state of any kind, as political or social. (7)
An attachment to a sewing-machine for regulating the strain of the thread.
Now of these definitions (2), (3), (4), and (7) are too highly specialized
to conduct us, of themselves, into the highway of the word's meaning. They
bear out, however, the evidence of (1), (5), and (6), which have as their
core the idea of stretching, or of the strain which stretching produces.
We must now lay the original meaning alongside the central meaning today,
in order to draw our conclusions. We perceive that the two meanings
correspond. Yet by prying into them we make out one marked difference
between them. The original meaning is literal, the modern largely
figurative. To be sure, the figure has been so long used that it is now
scarcely felt as a figure; its force and definiteness have departed.
Consequently we may speak of being on a tension without having in mind at
all a comparison of our nervous system with a stretched garment, or with
an outreaching arm, or with a tightly strung musical instrument, or with a
taut rope.
What, then, is the net result of our investigation? Simply this, that
_tension_ means stretching, and that the stretching may be conceived
either literally or figuratively. With these two facts in mind, we need
not (unless we are experts in mechanics, physics, statical electricity, or
the sewing-machine) go to the trouble of committing the special senses of
_tension_; for should occasion bid, we can--from our position at the
heart of the word--easily grasp their rough purport. And from other
persons than specialists no more would be required.
EXERCISE - Dictionary
For each of the following words find (a) the original meaning, (b) the
central meaning today. (Other words are given in the exercises at the end
of this chapter.)
Bias Supersede Sly
Aversion Capital Meerschaum
Extravagant Travel Alley
Concur Travail Fee
Attention Apprehend Superb
Magnanimity Lewd Adroit
Altruism Instigation Quite
Benevolence Complexion Urchin
Charity Bishop Thoroughfare
Unction Starve Naughty
Speed Cunning Moral
Success Decent Antic
Crafty Handsome Savage
Usury Solemn Uncouth
Costume Parlor Window
Presumption Bombastic Colleague
Petty Vixen Alderman
Queen Doctor Engage
To thread with minute fidelity the mazes of a word's former history is the
task of the linguistic scholar; our province is the practical and the
present-day. But words, like men, are largely what they are because of
what they have been; and to turn a gossip's eye upon their past is to
procure for ourselves, often, not only enlightenment but also
entertainment. This fact, though brought out in some part already,
deserves separate and fuller discussion.
In the first place, curiosity as to words' past experience enables us to
read with keener understanding the literature of preceding ages. Of course
we should not, even so, go farther back than about three centuries. To
read anything earlier than Shakespeare would require us to delve too
deeply into linguistic bygones. And to read Shakespeare himself requires
effort--but rewards it. Let us see how an insight into words will help us
to interpret the Seven Ages of Man (Appendix 4).
In line 2 of this passage appears the word _merely_. In Shakespeare's
time it frequently meant "altogether" or "that and nothing else." As here
used, it may be taken to mean this, or to have its modern meaning, or to
stand in meaning midway between the two and to be suggestive of both;
there is no way of determining precisely. In line 12 the word _pard_
means leopard. In line 18 _saws_ means "sayings" (compare the phrase
"an old saw"); _modern_ means "moderate," "commonplace";
_instances_ means what we mean by it today, "examples,"
"illustrations." (Line 18 as a whole gives us a vivid sense of the
justice's readiness to speak sapiently, after the manner of justices, and
to trot out his trite illustrations on the slightest provocation.) The
word _pantaloon_ in line 20 is interesting. The patron saint of
Venice was St. Pantaleon (the term is from Greek, means "all-lion," and
possibly refers to the lion of St. Mark's Cathedral). _Pantaloon_
came therefore to signify (1) a Venetian, (2) a garment worn by Venetians
and consisting of breeches and stockings in one. The second sense is
preserved, substantially, in our term _pantaloons_. The first sense
led to the use of the word (in the mouths of the Venetians' enemies) for
"buffoon" and then (in early Italian comedy) for "a lean and foolish old
man." It is this stock figure of the stage that Shakespeare evokes. In
line 22 _hose_ means the covering for a man's body from his waist to
his nether-stock. (Compare the present meaning: a covering for the feet
and the _lower_ part of the legs.) In line 27 _mere_ means
"absolute." In line 28 _sans_ means "without."
Of the words we have examined, only _sans_ is obsolete, though
_pard_, _saws_, and _pantaloon_ are perhaps not entirely
familiar. That is, only one word in the passage, so far as its outward
form goes, is completely alien to our knowledge. But how different the
matter stands when we consider meanings! The words are words of today, but
the meanings are the meanings of Shakespeare. We should be baffled and
misled as to the dramatist's thought if we had made no inquiries into the
vehicle therefor.
In the second place, to look beyond the present into the more remote
signification of words will put us on our guard against the reappearance
of submerged or half-forgotten meanings. We have seen that the word
_tension_ may be used without conscious connection with the idea of
stretching. But if we incautiously place the word in the wrong
environment, the idea will be resurrected to our undoing. We associate
_ardor_ with strong and eager desire. For ordinary purposes this
conception of the word suffices. But _ardor_ is one of the children
of fire; its primary sense is "burning" (compare _arson_). Therefore
to pronounce the three vocables "overflowing with ardor" is to mix figures
of speech absurdly. We should fall into a similar mistake if we said
"brilliant fluency," and into a mistake of another kind (that of tautology
or repetition of an idea) if we said "heart-felt cordiality," for
_cordiality_ means "feelings of the heart." _Appreciate_ means
"set a (due) value on." We may perhaps say "really appreciate," but
scrupulous writers and speakers do not say "appreciate very much." A
_humor_ (compare humid) was once a "moisture"; then one of the four
moistures or liquids that entered into the human constitution and by the
proportions of their admixture determined human temperament; next a man's
outstanding temperamental quality (the thing itself rather than the cause
of it); then oddity which people may laugh at; then the spirit of laughter
and good nature in general. Normally we do not connect the idea of
moisture with the word. We may even speak of "a dry humor." But we should
not say "now and then a dry humor crops out," for then too many buried
meanings lie in the same grave for the very dead to rest peacefully
together.
Even apart from reading old literature and from having, when you use
words, no ghosts of their pristine selves rise up to damn you, you may
profit from a knowledge of how the meaning of a term has evolved. For
example, you will meet many tokens and reminders of the customs and
beliefs of our ancestors. Thus _coxcomb_ carries you back to the days
when every court was amused by a "fool" whose head was decked with a
cock's comb; _crestfallen_ takes you back to cockfighting; and
_lunatic_ ("moonstruck"), _disaster_ ("evil star"), and "thank
your lucky stars" plant you in the era of superstition when human fate was
governed by heavenly bodies.
Further, you will perceive the poetry of words. Thus to _wheedle is_
to wag the tail and to _patter_ is to hurry through one's prayers
(paternoster). What a picture of the frailty of men even in their holiness
flashes on us from that word _patter! Breakfast is_ the breaking of
the fast of the night. _Routine_ (the most humdrum of words) is
travel along a way already broken. _Goodby_ is an abridged form of
"God be with you." _Dilapidated_ is fallen stone from stone.
_Daisy_ is "the day's eye," _nasturtium_ (from its spicy smell)
"the nose-twister," _dandelion_ "the tooth of the lion." _A
lord_ is a bread-guard.
You will perceive, moreover, that many a dignified word once involved the
same idea as some unassuming or even semi-disreputable word or expression
involves now. Thus there is little or no difference in figure between
understanding a thing and getting on to it; between averting something
(turning it aside) and sidetracking it; between excluding (shutting out)
and closing the door to; between degrading (putting down a step) and
taking down a notch; between accumulating (heaping up) and making one's
pile; between taking umbrage (the shadow) and being thrown in the shade;
between ejaculating and throwing out a remark; between being on a tension
and being highstrung; between being vapid and having lost steam; between
insinuating (winding in) and worming in; between investigating and
tracking; between instigating (goading on or into) and prodding up;
between being incensed (compare _incendiary_) and burning with
indignation; between recanting (unsinging) and singing another tune;
between ruminating (chewing) and smoking in one's pipe. Nor is there much
difference in figure between sarcasm (a tearing of the flesh) and taking
the hide off; between sinister (left-handed) and backhanded; between
preposterous (rear end foremost) and cart before the horse; between salary
(salt-money, an allowance for soldiers) and pin-money; between pedigree
(crane's foot, from the appearance of genealogical diagrams) and crowsfeet
(about the eyes); between either precocious (early cooked), apricot (early
cooked), crude (raw), or recrudescence (raw again) and half-baked. To
ponder is literally to weigh; to apprehend an idea is to take hold of it;
to deviate is to go out of one's way; to congregate is to flock together;
to assail or insult a man is to jump on him; to be precipitate is to go
head foremost; to be recalcitrant is to kick.
Again, you will perceive that many words once had more literal or more
definitely concrete meanings than they have now. To corrode is to gnaw
along with others, to differ is to carry apart, to refuse is to pour back.
Polite is polished, absurd is very deaf, egregious is taken from the
common herd, capricious is leaping about like a goat, cross (disagreeable)
is shaped like a cross, wrong is wrung (or twisted). Crisscross is
Christ's cross, attention is stretching toward, expression is pressed out,
dexterity is right-handedness, circumstances are things standing around,
an innuendo is nodding, a parlor is a room to talk in, a nostril is that
which pierces the nose (thrill means pierce), vinegar is sharp wine, a
stirrup is a rope to mount by, a pastor is a shepherd, a marshal is a
caretaker of horses, a constable is a stable attendant, a companion is a
sharer of one's bread.
On the other hand, you will find that many words were once more general in
import than they have since become. _Fond_ originally meant foolish,
then foolishly devoted, then (becoming more general again) devoted.
_Nostrum_ meant our own, then a medicine not known by other
physicians, then a quack remedy. _Shamefast_ meant confirmed in
modesty (shame); then through a confusion of _fast_ with
_faced_, a betrayal through the countenance of self-consciousness or
guilt. _Counterfeit_ meant a copy or a picture, then an unlawful
duplication, especially of a coin. _Lust_ meant pleasure of any sort,
then inordinate sexual pleasure or desire. _Virtue_ (to trace only a
few of its varied activities) meant manliness, then the quality or
attribute peculiar to true manhood (with the Romans this was valor), then
any admirable quality, then female chastity. _Pen_ meant a feather,
then a quill to write with, then an instrument for writing used in the
same way as a quill. A _groom_ meant a man, then a stableman (in
_bridegroom_, however, it preserves the old signification).
_Heathen_ (heath-dweller), _pagan_ (peasant), and _demon_
(a divinity) had in themselves no iniquitous savor until early Christians
formed their opinion of the people inaccessible to them and the spirits
incompatible with the unity of the Godhead. Words betokening future
happenings or involving judgment tend to take a special cast from the
fears and anxieties men feel when their fortune is affected or their
destiny controlled by external forces. Thus _omen_ (a prophetic
utterance or sign) and _portent_ (a stretching forward, a foreseeing,
a foretelling) might originally be either benign or baleful; but nowadays,
especially in the adjectival forms _ominous_ and _portentous_,
they wear a menacing hue. Similarly _criticism_, _censure_, and
_doom_, all of them signifying at first mere judgment, have come--the
first in popular, the other two in universal, usage--to stand for adverse
judgment. The old sense of _doom_ is perpetuated, however, in
_Doomsday_, which means the day on which we are all to be, not
necessarily sent to hell, but judged.
You will furthermore perceive that the exaggerated affirmations people are
always indulging in have led to the weakening of many a word. _Fret_
meant eat; formerly to say that a man was fretting was to use a vigorous
comparison--to have the man devoured with care. _Mortify_ meant to
kill, then killed with embarrassment, then embarrassed. _Qualm_ meant
death, but our qualms of conscience have degenerated into mere twinges.
Oaths are shorn of their might by overuse; _confound_, once a
tremendous malinvocation, may now fall from the lips of respectable young
ladies, and _fie_, in its time not a whit less dire, would be
scarcely out of place in even a cloister. Words designating immediacy come
to have no more strength than soup-meat seven times boiled.
_Presently_ meant in the present, _soon_ and _by and by_
meant forthwith. How they have lost their fundamental meaning will be
intelligible to you if you have in ordering something been told that it
would be delivered "right away," or in calling for a girl have been told
that she would be down "in a minute."
You will detect in words of another class a deterioration, not in force,
but in character; they have fallen into contemptuous or sinister usage.
Many words for skill or wisdom have been thus debased. _Cunning_
meant knowing, _artful_ meant well acquainted with one's art,
_crafty_ meant proficient in one's craft or calling, _wizard_
meant wise man. The present import of these words shows how men have
assumed that mental superiority must be yoked with moral dereliction or
diabolical aid. Words indicating the generality--indicating ordinary rank
or popular affiliations--have in many instances suffered the same decline.
_Trivial_ meant three ways; it was what might be heard at the
crossroads or on any route you chanced to be traveling, and its value was
accordingly slight. _Lewd_ meant belonging to the laity; it came to
mean ignorant, and then morally reprehensible. _Common_ may be used
to signify ill-bred; _vulgar_ may be and frequently is used to
signify indecent. _Sabotage_, from a French term meaning wooden shoe,
has come to be applied to the deliberate and systematic scamping of one's
work in order to injure one's employer. _Idiot_ (common soldier)
crystallizes the exasperated ill opinion of officers for privates.
(_Infantry_--an organization of military infants--has on the contrary
sloughed its reproach and now enshrines the dignity of lowliness.)
Somewhat akin to words of this type is _knave_, which first meant
boy, then servant, then rogue. Terms for agricultural classes seldom
remain flattering. Besides such epithets as _hayseed_ and
_clodhopper_, contemptuous in their very origin, _villain_ (farm
servant), _churl_ (farm laborer), and _boor_ (peasant) have all
gathered unto themselves opprobrium; _villain_ now involves a
scoundrelly spirit, _churl_ a contumelious manner, _boor_ a
bumptious ill-breeding; not one of these words is any longer confined in
its application to a particular social rank. Terms for womankind are soon
tainted. _Wench_ meant at first nothing worse than girl or daughter,
_quean_ than woman, _hussy_ than housewife; even _woman_ is
generally felt to be half-slighting. Terms affirming unacquaintance with
sin, or abstention from it, tend to be quickly reft of what praise they
are fraught with; none of us likes to be saluted as _innocent_,
_guileless_, or _unsophisticated_, and to be dubbed _silly_ no
longer makes us feel blessed. Besides these and similar classes of words,
there are innumerable individual terms that have sadly lost caste. An
_imp_ was erstwhile a scion; it then became a boy, and then a
mischievous spirit. A _noise_ might once be music; it has ceased to
enjoy such possibilities. To live near a piano that is constantly banged
is to know how _noise_ as a synonym for music was outlawed.
A backward glance over the history of words repays you in showing you the
words for what they are, and in having them live out their lives before
you. Do you know what an _umpire_ is? He is a non (or num) peer, a
not equal man, an odd man--one therefore who can decide disputes. Do you
know what a _nickname_ is? It is an eke (also) name, a title bestowed
upon one in addition to his proper designation. Do you know what a
_fellow_, etymologically speaking, is? He is a fee-layer, a partner,
a man who lays his fee (property) alongside yours. Do you know that
_matinée_, though awarded to the afternoon, meant primarily a morning
entertainment and has traveled so far from its original sense that we call
an actual before-noon performance a morning matinée? Do you know the past
of such words as _bedlam_, _rival_, _parson_,
_sandwich_, _pocket handkerchief?_ _Bedlam_, a corruption
of _Bethlehem_, was a hospital for the insane in London; it came to
be a general term for great confusion or discord. _Rivals_ were
formerly dwellers--that is, neighboring dwellers--on the bank of a stream;
disputes over water-rights gave the word its present meaning. A
_person_ or _parson_, for the two were the same, was a mask
(literally, that through which the sound came); then an actor representing
a character in a play; then a representative of any sort; then the
representative of the church in a parish. A _sandwich_ was a
stratification of bread and meat by the Earl of Sandwich, who was so loath
to leave the gaming table that he saved time by having food brought him in
this form. A _kerchief_ was originally a cover for the head, and
indeed sundry amiable, old-fashioned grandmothers still use it for this
purpose. Afterward people carried it in their hands and called it a
_handkerchief_; and when they transferred it to the pocket, they
called it a _pocket handkerchief_ or pocket hand head-cover. A
scrutiny of such words should convince you that the reading of the
dictionary, instead of being the dull occupation it is almost proverbially
reputed to be, may become an occupation truly fascinating. For clustered
about the words recorded in the dictionary are inexhaustible riches of
knowledge and of interest for those who have eyes to see.
EXERCISE - Past
1. For each of the following words look up (a) the present meaning if you
do not know it, (b) the original meaning, (c) any other past meanings you
can find.
Exposition Corn Cattle
Influence Sanguine Turmoil
Sinecure Waist Shrew
Potential Spaniel Crazy
Character Candidate Indomitable
Infringe Rascal Amorphous
Expend Thermometer Charm
Rather Tall Stepchild
Wedlock Ghostly Haggard
Bridal Pioneer Pluck
Noon Neighbor Jimson weed
Courteous Wanton Rosemary
Cynical Street Plausible
Grocer Husband Allow
Worship Gipsy Insane
Encourage Clerk Disease
Astonish Clergyman Boulevard
Realize Hectoring Canary
Bombast Primrose Diamond
Benedict Walnut Abominate
Piazza Holiday Barbarous
Disgust Heavy Kind
Virtu Nightmare Devil
Gospel Comfort Whist
Mermaid Pearl Onion
Enthusiasm Domino Book
Fanatic Grotesque Cheat
Auction Economy Illegible
Quell Cheap Illegitimate
Sheriff Excelsior Emasculate
Danger Dunce Champion
Shibboleth Calico Adieu
Essay Pontiff Macadamize
Wages Copy Stentorian
Quarantine Puny Saturnine
Buxom Caper Derrick
Indifferent Boycott Mercurial
Gaudy Countenance Poniard
Majority Camera Chattel.
2. The following words are often used loosely today, some because their
original meaning is lost sight of, some because they are confused with
other words. Find for each word (a) what the meaning has been and (b) what
the correct meaning is now.
Nice Awful Atrocious
Grand Horrible Pitiful
Beastly Transpire Claim
Weird Aggravate Uncanny
Demean Gorgeous Elegant
Fine Noisome Mutual (in "a mutual friend")
Lovely Cute Stunning
Liable Immense.
3. The following sentences from standard English literature illustrate the
use of words still extant and even familiar, in senses now largely or
wholly forgotten. The quotations from the Bible and Shakespeare (all the
Biblical quotations are from the King James Version) date back a little
more than three hundred years, those from Milton a little less than three
hundred years, and those from Gray and Coleridge, respectively, about a
hundred and seventy-five and a hundred and twenty-five years. Go carefully
enough into the past meanings of the italicized words to make sure you
grasp the author's thought.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of
these is _charity_.(1 _Corinthians_ 13:13)
I _prevented_ the dawning of the morning. (_Psalms_ 119:147)
Our eyes _wait_ upon the Lord our God. (_Psalms_ 123:2)
The times of this ignorance God _winked_ at. (_Acts_ 17:30)
And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that
_virtue_ is gone out of me. (_Luke_ 8:46)
To judge the _quick_ and the dead. (1 _Peter_ 4:5)
Be not wise in your own _conceits_. (_Romans_ 12:16)
In maiden meditation, _fancy_-free. (Shakespeare: _A Midsummer
Night's Dream_)
Is it so _nominated_ in the bond? (Shakespeare: _The Merchant
of Venice_)
Would I had met my _dearest_ foe in heaven. (Shakespeare:
_Hamlet_)
The _extravagant_ and _erring_ spirit. (Said of a spirit
wandering from the bounds of purgatory. Shakespeare: _Hamlet_)
The _modesty_ of nature. (Shakespeare: _Hamlet_)
It is a nipping and an _eager_ air. (Shakespeare: _Hamlet_)
_Security_
Is mortals' chiefest enemy. (Shakespeare: _Macbeth_)
Most _admired_ disorder. (Shakespeare: _Macbeth_)
Upon this _hint_ I spake. (From the account of the wooing of
Desdemona. Shakespeare: _Othello_)
This Lodovico is a _proper_ man. A very handsome man.
(Shakespeare: _Othello_)
Mice and rats and such small _deer_. (Shakespeare: _King Lear_)
This is no sound
That the earth _owes_. (Shakespeare: _The Tempest_)
Every shepherd _tells_ his _tale_. (Milton: _L'Allegro_)
Bring the _rathe_ primrose that forsaken dies. (_Rathe_ survives
only in the comparative form _rather_. Milton: _Lycidas_)
Can honor's voice _provoke_ the silent dust? (Gray: _Elegy_)
The _silly_ buckets on the deck. (Coleridge: _The Ancient
Mariner_)
4. In technical usage or particular phrases a former sense of a word may
be embedded like a fossil. The italicized words in the following list
retain special senses of this kind. What do these words as thus used mean?
Can you add to the list?
To _wit_
Might and _main_
Time and _tide_
Christmas_tide_
_Sad_ bread
A bank _teller_
To _tell_ one's _beads_
Aid and _abet_
_Meat_ and drink
Shop_lifter_
Fishing-_tackle_
Getting off _scot_-free
An _earnest_ of future favors
A _brave_ old hearthstone
_Confusion_ to the enemy!
Giving aid and _comfort_ to the enemy
Without _let_ or hindrance
A _let_ in tennis
_Quick_lime
Cut to _the quick_
_Neat_-foot oil
To _sound in_ tort (Legal phrase)
To bid one God_speed_
I had as _lief_ as not
The child _favors_ its parents
On _pain_ of death
Widow's _weeds_
I am _bound_ for the Promised Land
To _carry_ a girl to a party (Used only in the South)
To give a person so much _to boot_
5. Each of the subjoined phrases contradicts itself or repeats its idea
clumsily. The key to the difficulty lies in the italicized words. What is
their true meaning?
A weekly _journal_
_Ultimate_ end
Final _ultimatum_
_Final_ completion
Previous _preconceptions_
_Nauseating_ seasickness
_Join_ together
_Descend_ down
_Prefer_ better
_Argent_ silver
Completely _annihilate_
_Unanimously_ by all
Most _unique_ of all
The other _alternative_
_Endorse_ on the back
_Incredible_ to believe
A _criterion_ to go by
An _appetite_ to eat
_A panacea_ for all ills
_Popular_ with the people
_Biography_ of his life
_Autobiography_ of his own life
_Vitally_ alive
A new, _novel_, and ingenious explanation
_Mutual_ dislike for each other
_Omniscient_ knowledge of all subjects
A _material_ growth in mental power
_Peculiar_ faults of his own
Fly into an _ebullient_ passion
To _saturate_ oneself with gold and silver
Elected by _acclamation on_ a secret ballot.
V.
INDIVIDUAL WORDS: AS MEMBERS OF VERBAL FAMILIES
Our investigation into the nature, qualities, and fortunes of single words
must now merge into a study of their family connections. We do not go far
into this new phase of our researches before we perceive that the career
of a word may be very complicated. Most people, if you asked them, would
tell you that an individual word is a causeless entity--a thing that was
never begotten and lacks power to propagate. They would deny the
possibility that its course through the world could be other than
colorless, humdrum. Now words thus immaculately conceived and fatefully
impotent, words that shamble thus listlessly through life, there are. But
many words are born in an entirely normal way; have a grubby boyhood, a
vigorous youth, and a sober maturity; marry, beget sons and daughters,
become old, enfeebled, even senile; and suffer neglect, if not death. In
their advanced age they are exempted by the discerning from enterprises
that call for a lusty agility, but are drafted into service by those to
whom all levies are alike. Indeed in their very prime of manhood their
vicissitudes are such as to make them seem human. Some rise in the world
some sink; some start along the road of grandeur or obliquity, and then
backslide or reform. Some are social climbers, and mingle in company where
verbal dress coats are worn; some are social degenerates, and consort with
the ragamuffins and guttersnipes of language. Some marry at their own
social level, some above them, some beneath; some go down in childless
bachelorhood or leave an unkempt and illegitimate progeny. And if you
trace their own lineage, you will find for some that it is but decent and
middle-class, for some that it is mongrelized and miscegenetic, for some
that it is proud, ancient, yea perhaps patriarchal.
It is contrary to nature for a word, as for a man, to live the life of a
hermit. Through external compulsion or internal characteristics a word has
contacts with its fellows. And its most intimate, most spontaneous
associations are normally with its own kindred.
In our work hitherto we have had nothing to say of verbal consanguinity.
But we have not wholly ignored its existence, for the very good reason
that we could not. For example, in the latter portions of Chapter IV we
proceeded on the hypothesis that at least some words have ancestors. Also
in the analysis of the dictionary definition of _tension_ we learned
that the word has, not only a Latin forebear, but French, Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian kinsmen as well. One thing omitted from that
analysis would have revealed something further--namely, that the word has
its English kinfolks too. For the bracketed part of the dictionary
definition mentions two other English words, _tend_ and _tense_,
which from their origin involve the same idea as that of _tension_--
the idea of stretching.
Now words may be akin in either of two ways. They may be related in blood.
Or they may be related by marriage. Let us consider these two kinds of
connection more fully.
As an illustration of blood kinships enjoyed by a native English word take
the adjective _good_. We can easily call to mind other members of its
family: goodly, goodish, goody-goody, good-hearted, good-natured, good-
humored, good-tempered, goods, goodness, goodliness, gospel (good story),
goodby, goodwill, goodman, goodwife, good-for-nothing, good den (good
evening), the Good Book. The connection between these words is obvious.
Next consider a group of words that have been naturalized: scribe,
prescribe, ascribe, proscribe, transcribe, circumscribe, subscriber,
indescribable, scribble, script, scripture, postscript, conscript,
rescript, manuscript, nondescript, inscription, superscription,
description. It is clear that these words are each other's kith and kin in
blood, and that the strain or stock common to all is _scribe_ or (as
sometimes modified) _script_. What does this strain signify? The idea
of writing. The _scribes_ are a writing clan. Some of them, to be
sure, have strayed somewhat from the ancestral calling, for words are as
wilful--or as independent--as men. _Ascribe_, for example, does not
act like a member of the household of writers, whatever it may look like.
We should have to scrutinize it carefully or consult the record for it in
that verbal Who's Who, the dictionary, before we could understand how it
came by its scribal affiliations honestly. But once we begin to reflect or
to probe, we find we have not mistaken its identity. _Ascribe_ is the
offspring of _ad_ (to) and _scribo_ (write), both Latin terms.
It originally meant writing to a person's name or after it (that is,
imputing to the person by means of written words) some quality or
happening of which he was regarded as the embodiment, source, or cause.
Nowadays we may saddle the matter on him through oral rather than written
speech. That is, _ascribe_ has largely lost the writing traits. But
all the same it is manifestly of the writing blood.
The _scribes_ are of undivided racial stock, Latin. Consider now the
_manu_, or _man_, words which sprang from the Latin
_manus_, meaning "hand." Here are some of them: manual, manoeuver,
mandate, manacle, manicure, manciple, emancipate, manage, manner,
manipulate, manufacture, manumission, manuscript, amanuensis. These too
are children of the same father; they are brothers and sisters to each
other. But what shall we say of legerdemain (light, or sleight, of hand),
maintain, coup de main, and the like? They bear a resemblance to the
_man's_ and _manu's_, yet one that casual observers would not
notice. Is there kinship between the two sets of words? There is. But not
the full fraternal or sororal relation. The _mains_ are children of
_manus_ by a French marriage he contracted. With this French blood in
their veins, they are only half-brothers, half-sisters of the
_manu's_ and the _man's_.
Your examination of the family trees of words will be practical, rather
than highly scholastic, in nature. You need not track every word in the
dictionary to the den of its remote parentage. Nor need you bother your
head with the name of the distant ancestor. But in the case of the large
number of words that have a numerous kindred you should learn to detect
the inherited strain. You will then know that the word is the brother or
cousin of certain other words of your acquaintance, and this knowledge
will apprise you of qualities in it with which you should reckon. To this
extent only must you make yourself a student of verbal genealogy.
EXERCISE - Blood
(Simple exercises in tracing blood relationships among words are given at
the end of the chapter. Therefore the exercises assigned here are of a
special character.)
1. Each of the following groups is made up of related words, but the
relationship is somewhat disguised. Consult the dictionary for each word,
and learn all you can as to (a) its source, (b) the influence (as passing
through an intermediate language) that gave it its present form, (c) the
course of its development into its present meaning.
Captain Cathedral Governor
Capital Chaise Gubernatorial
Decapitate Chair
Chef Shay Guardian
Chieftain Ward
Camp
Cavalry Campaign Guarantee
Chivalry Champion Warrant
Camera Inept Incipient
Chamber Apt Receive
Serrated Inimical Poor
Sierra Enemy Pauper
Influence Espionage Work
Influenza Spy Wrought
Playwright
Isolate
Insular
2. The variety of sources for modern English is indicated by the following
list. Do not seek for blood kinsmen of these particular words, but think
of all the additional words you can that have come into English from
Indian, Spanish, French, any other language spoken today.
Alphabet (Greek) Piano (Italian)
Folio (Latin) Car (Norman)
Boudoir (French) Rush (German)
Binnacle (Portuguese) Sky (Icelandic)
Anger (Old Norse) Yacht (Dutch)
Isinglass (Low German) Hussar (Hungarian)
Slogan (Celtic) Samovar (Russian)
Polka (Polish) Chess (Persian)
Shekel (Hebrew) Tea (Chinese)
Algebra (Arabic) Kimono (Japanese)
Puttee (Hindoo) Tattoo (Tahitian)
Boomerang (Australian) Voodoo (African)
Potato (Haytian) Skunk (American Indian)
Guano (Peruvian) Buncombe (American)
Renegade (Spanish)
That words marry and are given in marriage, is too generally overlooked.
Any student of a foreign language, German for instance, can recall the
thrill of discovery and the lift of reawakened hope that came to him when
first he suspected, aye perceived, the existence of verbal matrimony. For
weeks he had struggled with words that apparently were made up of
fortuitous collocations of letters. Then in some beatific moment these
huddles of letters took meaning; in instance after instance they
represented, not a word, but words--a linguistic household. Let them be
what they might--a harem, the domestic establishment of a Mormon, the
dwelling-place of verbal polygamists,--he could at last see order in their
relationships. To their morals he was indifferent, absorbed as he was in
his joy of understanding.
In English likewise are thousands of these verbal marriages. We may not be
aware of them; from our very familiarity with words we may overlook the
fact that in instances uncounted their oneness has been welded by a
linguistic minister or justice of the peace. But to read a single page or
harken for thirty seconds to oral discourse with our minds intent on such
states of wedlock is to convince ourselves that they abound. Consider this
list of everyday words: somebody, already, disease, vineyard, unskilled,
outlet, nevertheless, holiday, insane, resell, schoolboy, helpmate,
uphold, withstand, rainfall, deadlock, typewrite, football, motorman,
thoroughfare, snowflake, buttercup, landlord, overturn. Every term except
one yokes a verbal husband with his wife, and the one exception
(_nevertheless_) joins a uxorious man with two wives.
These marriages are of a simple kind. But the nuptial interlinkings
between families of words may be many and complicated. Thus there is a
family of _graph_ (or write) words: graphic, lithograph, cerograph,
cinematograph, stylograph, telegraph, multigraph, seismograph, dictograph,
monograph, holograph, logograph, digraph, autograph, paragraph,
stenographer, photographer, biographer, lexicographer, bibliography,
typography, pyrography, orthography, chirography, calligraphy,
cosmography, geography. There is also a family of _phone_ (or sound)
words: telephone, dictaphone, megaphone, audiphone, phonology, symphony,
antiphony, euphonious, cacophonous, phonetic spelling. It chances that
both families are of Greek extraction. Related to the _graphs_--their
cousins in fact--are the _grams_: telegram, radiogram, cryptogram,
anagram, monogram, diagram, logogram, program, epigram, kilogram,
ungrammatical. Now a representative of the _graphs_ married into the
_phone_ family, and we have graphophone. A representative of the
_phones_ married into the _graph_ family, and we have
phonograph. A representative of the _grams_ married into the
_phone_ family, and we have gramophone. A representative of the
_phones_ married into the _gram_ family, and we have phonogram.
Of such unions children may be born. For example, from the marriage of Mr.
Phone with Miss Graph were born phonography, phonographer, phonographist
(a rather frail child), phonographic, phonographical, and
phonographically.
Intermarriage between the _phones_ and the _graphs_ or
_grams_ is a wedding of equals. Some families of words, however, are
of inferior social standing to other families, and may seek but not hope
to be sought in marriage. Compare the _ex's_ with the _ports_.
An _ex_, as a preposition, belongs to a prolific family but not one
of established and unimpeachable dignity. Hence the _ex's_, though
they marry right and left, lead the other words to the altar and are never
led thither themselves. Witness exclude, excommunicate, excrescence,
excursion, exhale, exit, expel, expunge, expense, extirpate, extract; in
no instance does _ex_ fellow its connubial mate--it invariably
precedes. The _ports_, on the other hand, are the peers of anybody.
Some of them choose to remain single: port, porch, portal, portly, porter,
portage. Here and there one marries into another family: portfolio,
portmanteau, portable, port arms. More often, however, they are wooed than
themselves do the pleading: comport, purport, report, disport, transport,
passport, deportment, importance, opportunity, importunate, inopportune,
insupportable. From our knowledge of the two families, therefore, we
should surmise that if any marriage is to take place between them; an
_ex_ must be the suitor. The surmise would be sound. There is such a
term as _export_, but not as _portex_.
Now it is oftentimes possible to do business with a man without knowing
whether he is a man or a bridal couple. And so with a word. But the
knowledge of his domestic state and circumstances will not come amiss, and
it may prove invaluable. You may find that you can handle him to best
advantage through a sagacious use of the influence of his wife.
EXERCISE - Marriage
1. For each word in the lists of EXERCISE - Dictionary and Activity 1 for
EXERCISE - Past, determine (a) whether it is single or married; (b) if it
is married, whether the wedding is one between equals.
2. Make a list of the married words in the first three paragraphs of the
selection from Burke (Appendix 2). For each of these words determine the
exact nature and extent of the dowry brought by each of the contracting
parties to the wedding.
Hitherto in our study of verbal relationships we have usually started with
the family. Having strayed (as by good luck) into an assembly of kinsmen,
we have observed the common strain and the general characteristics, and
have then "placed" the individual with reference to these. But we do not
normally meet words, any more than we meet men, in the domestic circle. We
meet them and greet them hastily as they hurry through the tasks of the
day, with no other associates about them than such as chance or momentary
need may dictate. If we are to see anything of their family life, it must
be through effort we ourselves put forth. We must be inquisitive about
their conjugal and blood relationships.
How, then, starting with the individual word, can you come into a
knowledge of it, not in its public capacity, but in what is even more
important, its personal connections? You must form the habit of asking two
questions about it: (1) Is it married? (2) Of what family or families was
it born? If you can get an understanding answer to these two questions, an
answer that will tell you what its relations stand for as well as what
their name is, your inquiries will be anything but bootless.
Let us illustrate your procedure concretely. Suppose you read or hear the
word _conchology_. It is a somewhat unusual word, but see what you
can do with it yourself before calling on the dictionary to help you.
Observe the word closely, and you will obtain the answer to your first
question. _Conchology_ is no bachelor, no verbal old maid; it is a
married pair.
Your second and more difficult task awaits you; you must ascertain the
meaning of the family connections. With Mr. Conch you are on speaking
terms; you know him as one of the shells. But the utmost you can recall
about his wife is that she is one of a whole flock of _ologies_. What
significance does this relationship possess? You are uncertain. But do not
thumb the dictionary yet. Pass in mental review all the _ologies_ you
can assemble. Wait also for the others that through the unconscious
operations of memory will tardily straggle in. Be on the lookout for
_ologies_ as you read, as you listen. In time you will muster a
sizable company of them. And you will draw a conclusion as to the meaning
of the blood that flows through their veins. _Ology_ implies speech
or study. _Conchology_, then, must be the study of conches.
Your investigations thus far have done more than teach you the meaning of
the word you began with. They have brought you some of the by-products of
the study of verbal kinships. For you no longer pass the _ologies_ by
with face averted or bow timidly ventured. You have become so well
acquainted with them that even a new one, wherever encountered, would
flash upon you the face of a friend. But now your desires are whetted. You
wish to find out how much you _can_ learn. You at last consult the
dictionary.
Here a huge obstacle confronts you. The _ologies_, like the
_ports_ (above), are a haughty clan; they are the wooed, rather
than the wooing, members of most marital households that contain them. Now
the marriage licenses recorded in the dictionary are entered under the
name of the suitor, not of the person sought. Hence you labor under a
severe handicap as you take the census of the _ologies_. Let us
imagine the handicap the most severe possible. Let us suppose that no
_ology_ had ever been the suitor. Even so, you would not be entirely
baffled. For you could look up in the dictionary the _ologies_ you
your self had been able to recall. To what profit? First, you could verify
or correct your surmise as to what the _ological_ blood betokens.
Secondly, you could perhaps obtain cross-references to yet other
_ologies_ than those you remembered.
But you are not reduced to these extremities. The _ologies_, arrogant
as they are, sometimes are the applicants for matrimony, and the marriage
registry of the dictionary so indicates. To be sure, they do not, when
thus appearing at the beginning of words, take the form _ology_. They
take the form _log_. But you must be resourceful enough to keep after
your quarry in spite of the omission of a vowel or two. Also from some
lexicons you may obtain still further help. You may find _ology, logy,
logo_, or _log_ listed as a combining form, its meaning given, and
examples of its use in compounds cited.
By your zeal and persistence you have now brought together a goodly array
of the _ologies_--all or most, let us say, of the following:
conchology, biology, morphology, phrenology, physiology, osteology,
histology, zoology, entomology, bacteriology, ornithology, pathology,
psychology, cosmology, eschatology, demonology, mythology, theology,
astrology, archeology, geology, meteorology, mineralogy, chronology,
genealogy, ethnology, anthropology, criminology, technology, doxology,
anthology, trilogy, philology, etymology, terminology, neologism,
phraseology, tautology, analogy, eulogy, apology, apologue, eclogue,
monologue, dialogue, prologue, epilogue, decalogue, catalogue, travelogue,
logogram, logograph, logo-type, logarithms, logic, illogical. (Moreover
you may have perceived in some of these words the kinship which exists in
all for the _loquy_ group--see (1) Soliloquy below.) Of course you
will discard some items from this list as being too learned for your
purposes. But you will observe of the others that once you know the
meaning of _ology_, you are likely to know the whole word. Thus from
your study of _conchology_ you have mastered, not an individual term,
but a tribe.
In _conchology_ only one element, _ology_, was really dubious at
the outset. Let us take a word of which both elements give you pause.
Suppose your thought is arrested by the word _eugenics_. You perhaps
know the word as a whole, but not its components. For by looking at it and
thinking about it you decide that its state is married, that it comprises
the household of Mr. Eu and his wife, formerly Miss Gen. But you cannot
say offhand just what kind of person either Mr. Eu or the erstwhile Miss
Gen is likely to prove.
Have you met any of the _Eu's_ elsewhere? You think vaguely that you
have, but cannot lay claim to any real acquaintance. To the dictionary you
accordingly betake yourself. There you find that Mr. Eu is of a family
quite respectable but not prone to marriage. _Euphony, eupepsia,
euphemism, euthanasia_ are of his retiring kindred. The meaning of the
_eu_ blood, so the dictionary informs you, is well. The _gen_
blood, as you see exemplified in gentle, general, genital, engender,
carries with it the idea of begetting, of producing, of birth, or (by
extension) of kinship. _Eugenics_, then, is an alliance of well and
begotten (or born).
Your immediate purpose is fulfilled; but you resolve, let us say, to make
the acquaintance of more of the _gens_, whose number you have
perceived to be legion. You are duly introduced to the following: genus,
generic, genre, gender, genitive, genius, general, Gentile, gentle,
gentry, gentleman, genteel, generous, genuine, genial, congeniality,
congener, genital, congenital, engender, generation, progeny, progenitor,
genesis, genetics, eugenics, pathogenesis, biogenesis, ethnogeny,
palingenesis, unregenerate, degenerate, monogeny, indigenous, exogenous,
homogeneous, heterogeneous, genealogy, ingenuous, ingenious, ingenue,
engine, engineer, hygiene, hydrogen, oxygen, endogen, primogeniture,
philoprogeniture, miscegenation. Some of these are professional rather
than social; you decide not to leave your card at their doors. Others have
assumed a significance somewhat un_gen_-like, though the relationship
may be traced if you are not averse to trouble, Thus _engine_ in its
superficial aspects seems alien to the idea of born. But it is the child
of _ingenious_ (innate, inborn); _ingenious_ is the inborn power
to accomplish, and _engine_ is the result of the application of that
power. Whether you care to bother with such subtleties or not, enough
_gens_ are left to make the family one well worth your cultivation.
Thus by studying two words, _conchology_ and _eugenics_, you
have for the first time placed yourself on an intimate footing with three
verbal families--the _ologies_, the _eu's,_ and the _gens_.
Observe that though you studied the _ologies_ apart from the
_eu's_ and the _gens_, your knowledge--once you have acquired
it--cannot be kept pigeonholed, for the _ologies_ have intermarried
with both the other families. Hence you on meeting _eulogy_ can
exclaim: "How do you do, Mr. Eu? I am honored in making your acquaintance,
Mrs. Eu--I was about to call you by your maiden name; for I am a friend of
your sister, the Miss Ology who married Mr. Conch. And you too, Mr. Eu--I
cannot regard you as a stranger. I have looked in so often on the family
of your brother--the Euphony family, I mean. What a beautiful literary
household it is! Yet it has been neglected by the world-yea, even by the
people who write. Well, the loss is theirs who do the neglecting." And
_genealogy_ you can greet with an equal parade of family lore: "Don't
trouble to tell me who you are. I am hob and nob with your folks on both
sides of the family, and my word for it, the relationship is written all
over you. Mr. Gen, I envy you the pride you must feel in the prominence
given nowadays to the _eugenics_ household. And it must delight you,
Miss Ology-that-was, that connoisseurs are so keenly interested in
_conchology_. How are Grandfather Gen and Grandmother Ology? They
were keeping up remarkably the last time I saw them." Do you think words
will not respond to cordiality like this? They will work their flattered
heads off for you!
EXERCISE - Relationships
1. For each of the following words (a) determine what families are
intermarried, (b) ascertain the exact contribution to the household by
each family represented, and (c) make as complete a list as possible of
cognate words.
Reject Oppose Convent Defer Omit Produce Expel
2. Test the extent of the intermarriages among these words by successively
attaching each of the prefixes to each of the main (or key) syllables.
(Thus re-ject, re-fer, re-pel, etc.)
In tracing verbal kinships you must be prepared for slight variations in
the form of the same key-syllable. Consider these words: wise, wiseacre,
wisdom, wizard, witch, wit, unwitting, to wit, outwit, twit, witticism,
witness, evidence, providence, invidious, advice, vision, visit, vista,
visage, visualize, envisage, invisible, vis-à-vis, visor, revise,
supervise, improvise, proviso, provision, view, review, survey, vie, envy,
clairvoyance. Perhaps the last six should be disregarded as too
exceptional in form to be clearly recognized. And certainly some words, as
_prudence_ from _providentia_, are so metamorphosed that they
should be excluded from practical lists of this kind. But even in the
words left to us there are fairly marked divergences in appearance. Why?
Because the key-syllable has descended to us, not through one language,
but through several. As good verbal detectives we should be able to
penetrate the consequent disguises; for _wis, wiz, wit, vid, vic_,
and _vis_ all embody the idea of seeing or knowing.
On the other hand, you must take care not to be misled by a superficial
resemblance into thinking two unrelated key-syllables identical. Let us
consider two sets of words. The first, which is related to the _tain_
group (see below), has a key-syllable that means holding:
tenant, tenement, tenure, tenet, tenor, tenable, tenacious, contents,
contentment, lieutenant, maintenance, sustenance, countenance,
appurtenance, detention, retentive, pertinacity, pertinent, continent,
abstinence, continuous, retinue. The second has a key-syllable that means
stretching: tend, tender, tendon, tendril, tendency, extend, subtend,
distend, pretend, contend, attendant, tense, tension, pretence, intense,
intensive, ostensible, tent, tenterhook, portent, attention, intention,
tenuous, attenuate, extenuate, antenna, tone, tonic, standard. The form of
the key-syllable for the first set of words is usually _ten, tent_,
or _tin_; that for the second _tend, tens, tent_, or _ten_.
You may therefore easily confuse the two groups until you have learned to
look past appearances into meanings. Thenceforth the holdings and the
stretchings will be distinct in your mind--will constitute two great
families, not one. Of course individual words may still puzzle you. You
will not perceive that _tender_, for example, belongs with the
stretchings until you go back to its primary idea of something stretched
thin, or that _tone_ has membership in that family until you connect
it with the sound which a stretched chord emits.
FIRST GENERAL EXERCISE FOR THE CHAPTER
Each of the key-syllables given below is followed by (1) a list of fairly
familiar words that embody it, (2) a list of less familiar words that
embody it, (3) several sentences containing blank spaces, into each of
which you are ultimately to fit the appropriate word from the first list.
(The existence of the two lists will show you that learned words may have
commonplace kinfolks.)
First, however, you are to study each word in both lists for (1) its exact
meaning, (2) the influence of the key-syllable upon that meaning, (3) any
variation of the key-syllable from its ordinary form. (A few words have
been introduced to show how varied the forms may be and yet remain
recognizable.)
Also, as an aid to your memory, you are to copy each list, underscoring
the key-syllable each time you encounter it.
(The lists are practical, not meticulously academic. In many instances
they contain words derived, not from a single original, but from cognates.
No list is exhaustive.)
(carry on, do, drive): (1) agent, agitate, agile, act,
actor, actuate, exact, enact, reaction, counteract, transact, mitigate,
navigate, prodigal, assay, essay; (2) agenda, pedagogue, synagogue,
actuary, redact, castigate, litigation, exigency, ambiguous, variegated,
cogent, cogitate.
_Sentences_ (inflect forms if necessary; for example, use the past
tense, participle, or infinitive of a verb instead of its present tense):
It was ____ into law. The legislators had been ____ by honest motives, but
the popular ____ was immediate. The ____ of the mining company refused to
let us proceed with the ____. Nothing could ____ the offense. The father
was ____, the son ____. The student handed in his ____ at the ____ time
designated. Though ____ enough on land, he could not ____ a ship.
The ____ by missing his cue so ____ the manager that his good work
thereafter could not ____ the ill impression.
(burn): (1 and 2 combined) burn, burnish,
brunette, brunt, bruin, brand, brandish, brandy, brown.
_Sentences_: He plucked a ____ from the ____. The ____ hair of
the ____ was so glossy it seemed ____. He ____ his sword and bore
the ____ of the conflict. After drinking so much ____ he saw snakes in his
imagination, he staggered off into the woods and met Old ____ in reality.
(fall): (1) cadence, decadent, case, casual,
casualty, occasion, accident, incident, mischance, cheat; (2) casuistry,
coincide, occidental, deciduous.
_Sentences_: The period was a ____ one. He gave but ____ attention
to the ____ of the music. On this ____ an ____ befell him. To the general
it was a mere ____ that his ____ were heavy. As a result of this ____ he
was accused of trying to ____ them.
(go): (1) cede, recede, secede, concede,
intercede, procedure, precedent, succeed, exceed, success, recess,
concession, procession, intercession, abscess, ancestor, cease, decease;
(2) antecedent, precedence, cessation, accessory, predecessor.
_Sentences_: He ____ the existence of a ____ that justified
such ____. The delegate ____ his authority when he consented to ____ the
territory. He would not ____ from his position or ____ for mercy.
At ____ the pupils ____ in forming a ____. His ____ was suffering from
an ____ at the time the Southern states ____. His agony ____ only with
his ____.
(take): (1) receive, deceive,
perceive, deceit, conceit, receipt, reception, perception, inception,
conception, interception, accept, except, precept, municipal, participate,
anticipate, capable, capture, captivate, case (chest, covering), casement,
incase, cash, cashier, chase, catch, prince, forceps, occupy;
(2) receptacle, recipient, incipient, precipitate, accipiter, capacious,
incapacitate.
_Sentences_: Though she ____ the officers, she did not prevent
the ____ of the fugitive. He ____ that the man was very ____. The mayor
skilfully ____ the alderman and proposed that ____ bonds be issued. The
sight of the money ____ him and he quickly gave me a ____. He uttered
musty ____, which were not always given a friendly ____. From the ____ of
the movement he plotted to ____ the leadership in it. The ____ took part
in the ____, but failed to ____ any of the game.
(cut, kill): (1) decide, suicide, homicide, concise,
precise, decisive, incision, scissors, chisel, cement; (2) patricide,
fratricide, infanticide, regicide, germicide, excision, circumcision,
incisors, cesura.
_Sentences_: He could not ____ whether to make the ____ with
a ____ or a pair of ____. There was ____ evidence that he was the ____.
In a few ____ sentences he explained why his friend could never have been
a ____. The prim old lady had very ____ manners of speech.
(run): (1) current, currency, incur, concur,
occurrence, cursory, excursion, course, discourse, intercourse, recourse;
(2) curriculum, precursor, discursive, recurrent, concourse, courier,
succor, corridor.
_Sentences_: He ____ in the request that payment be made in ____.
The ____ was so strong that the ____ by steamer had to be abandoned. In
the ____ of his remarks he had ____ to various shifts and evasions. By his
____ with one faction, though it was but ____, he ____ the enmity of the
other. It was a disgraceful ____.
(speak, say): (1) dedicate, vindicate, indication,
predicament, predict, addict, verdict, indict, dictionary, dictation,
jurisdiction, vindictive, contradiction, benediction, ditto, condition;
(2) abdicate, adjudicate, juridical, diction, dictum, dictator,
dictaphone, dictograph, edict, interdict, valedictory, malediction, ditty,
indite, ipse dixit, on dit.
_Sentences_: The man ____ to drugs was ____ for ____ treatment of his
wife, and the ____ were that the ____ would be against him. He said, on
the contrary, that his character would be ____. The attorney for the
defense ____ that the judge would rule that the matter did not lie within
his ____. This would leave the prosecution in a ____. But the prosecution
issued a strong ____ of this theory, and said ____ were favorable for
proving the man guilty.
(lead): (1) induce, reduce, traduce, seduce, introduce,
reproduce, education, deduct, product, production, reduction, conduct,
conductor, abduct, subdue; (2) educe, adduce, superinduce, conducive,
ducat, duct, ductile, induction, aqueduct, viaduct, conduit, duke, duchy.
_Sentences_: We ____ the company to ____ the fare. They ____ ten
cents from the wages of each man, an average ____ of four per cent.
They ____ us when they say we have wilfully lessened ____. The highwaymen
____ the ____. If you have an ____, you can ____ an idea in other words.
(wander): (1) error, erroneous, erratic, errand;
(2) errata, knight errant, arrant knave, aberration.
_Sentences_: That ____ fellow came on a special ____ to tell us we
had made an ____. And his statement was ____ at that!
(make, do): (1) fact, factory,
faction, manufacture, satisfaction, suffice, sacrifice, office, difficult,
pacific, terrific, significant, fortification, magnificent, artificial,
beneficial, verify, simplify, stupefy, certify, dignify, glorify, falsify,
beautify, justify, infect, perfect, effect, affection, defective, feat,
defeat, feature, feasible, forfeit, surfeit, counterfeit, affair, fashion;
(2) factor, factotum, malefaction, benefaction, putrefaction, facile,
facsimile, faculty, certificate, edifice, efficacy, prolific, deficient,
proficient, artifice, artificer, beneficiary, versification, unification,
exemplification, deify, petrify, rectify, amplify, fructify, liquefy,
disaffect, refection, comfit, pontiff, ipso facto, de facto, ex post
facto, au fait, fait accompli.
_Sentences_: The opposing ____ by incredible ____ had found
it ____ to take over the ____ of the goods. By this ____ it ____ what
goodwill the owner of the ____ had for it, but it won the ____ of the
public. The owner, though seemingly ____ at first, soon ____ a scheme to
make the success of the enterprise more ____. By an ____ lowering of the
price of his own goods and by ____ that those of his rivals were ____,
he hoped to ____ the public mind with unjust suspicions. But all this did
not ____. In truth the ____ of it was the hastening of his own ____ and a
____ heightening of the public ____ toward his rivals. His directors,
seeing that his policy had failed to ____ itself, met in his ____ and
urged him to take a more ____ attitude.
(bear, carry): (1) transfer, prefer, proffer, suffer, confer,
offer, referee, deference, inference, indifferent, ferry, fertile; (2)
referendum, Lucifer, circumference, vociferate, auriferous, coniferous,
pestiferous.
_Sentences_: With real ____ to their wishes he ____ to ____ the
goods by ____. The ____ of the sporting writers was that the ____
was ____ to his duties. After ____ apart, the farmers ____ the use of
their most ____ acres for this experiment. To be mortal is to ____.
(trust, believe, have faith): (1) fidelity, confide,
confident, diffident, infidel, perfidious, bona fide, defiance, affiance;
(2) fiduciary, affidavit, fiancé, auto da fé, Santa Fé.
_Sentences_: He was ____ that the man was an ____. He had ____ in
a ____ rascal. He had been ____ for years and had proved his ____. Though
we are somewhat ____ in making it, you may be sure it is a ____ offer. His
attitude toward his father is one of gross ____.
(walk, go): (1) grade, gradual, graduate, degrade,
digress, Congress, aggressive, progressive, degree; (2) gradation,
Centigrade, ingress, egress, transgression, retrogression, ingredient.
_Sentences_: His failure to ____ from college made him feel ____
especially as his cronies all received their ____. The engine lost
speed ____ as it climbed the long ____. I ____ to remark that some members
of ____ are more ____ than ____.
(have, hold): (1) habit, habitation, inhabitant, exhibit,
prohibition, ability, debit, debt; (2) habituate, habiliment, habeas
corpus, cohabit, dishabille, inhibit.
_Sentences_: The ____ of the island ____ an ____ to live without
permanent ____. It was his ____ to glance first at the ____ side of his
ledger, as he was much worried about his ____. Most women favor ____.
(sound): (1) hale, hallow, Hallowe'en, heal,
health, unhealthy, healthful, holy, holiday, hollyhock, whole, wholesome;
(2) halibut, halidom.
_Sentences_: Though he lived in a ____ climate, he was ____. The food
was ____, the man ____ and hearty. He did not think of a ____ as ____. We
had ____ in our garden almost until ____. He wept at hearing the ____ name
of his mother. For a ____ month the wound refused to ____.
(go): (1) exit, transit, transition, initial, initiative,
ambition, circuit, perishable; (2) itinerant, transitory, obituary,
sedition, circumambient.
_Sentences_: The ____ was broken. It was his ____ shipment of ____
goods, and they suffered a good deal in ____. His ____ was to be regarded
as a man of great ____. His ____ was less effective than his entrance.
(throw): (1) eject, reject, subject, project, objection,
injection, dejected, conjecture, jet, jetty; (2) abject, traject,
adjective, projectile, interjection, ejaculate, jetsam, jettison.
_Sentences_: With ____ mien he watched the waves lash the ____.
His scheme was ____ to much ridicule and then ____, and he himself
was ____ from the room. From a pipe that ____ from the corner of the
building came a ____ of dirty water. He could only ____ what their ____
was. The ____ brought immediate relief.
(law, right): (1) judge, judicious, judicial,
prejudice, jurist, jurisdiction, just, justice, justify; (2) judicature,
adjudicate, juridical, jurisprudence, justiciary, de jure.
_Sentences_: The eminent ____ said the matter did not lie within
his ____. Though ____ in most matters, he admitted to ____ in this.
The ____ said he would comment in an unofficial rather than a ____ way.
She could not ____ her suspicions. He was not only ____ himself, but
devoted to ____.
(join): (1) junction, juncture, injunction, disjunctive,
conjugal, adjust; (2) adjunct, conjunction, subjunctive, conjugate.
_Sentences_: A ____ force had entered their ____ relationships.
At this ____ he gave the ____ that disturbances should cease. The tramp
halted at the ____ to eat his lunch and ____ his knapsack.
(swear): (1 and 2 combined) juror, jury, abjure, adjure,
conjurer, perjury.
_Sentences_: They ____ their loyalty. He ____ them to remember their
duty as ____. The ____ held the ____ guilty of ____.
(read, choose, pick up): (1) elegant, illegible,
college, negligent, diligent, eligible, elect, select, intellect,
recollect, neglect, lecturer, collection, coil, cull; (2) legend, legion,
legacy, legate, delegate, sacrilegious, dialect, lectern, colleague,
lexicon.
_Sentences_: In ____ he listened to the ____ and took an occasional
note in an ____ hand. She ____ an ____ costume. They ____ the only man
who was ____. He did not ____ to take up the ____. He was ____ rather
than ____. Her mind was too ____ to ____ all the circumstances.
(bind): (1 and 2 combined) ligament, ligature, obligation,
ally, alliance, allegiance, league, lien, liable, liaison, alloy.
_Sentences_: It was a pleasure that knew no ____. To belong to
the ____ carries ____. In studying anatomy you learn all about ____ and
____. The two nations were in ____. We may be sure of their ____. We will
take a ____ upon your property. As a ____ officer he was ____ for the
equipment which our ____ reported lost.
(light): (1) lucid, translucent, luminous,
illuminate, luminary, luster, illustrate, illustrious; (2) lucent,
Lucifer, lucubration, elucidate, pellucid, relume, limn.
_Sentences_: The ____ author spoke very ____. He gave us a ____
explanation of a very abstruse subject. The material was ____ even to the
rays of the feeblest of the heavenly ____. He ____ his theory by the
following anecdote. This deed added ____ to his fame.
(order): (1 and 2 combined) mandate, mandamus, mandatory,
demand, remand, countermand, commandment.
_Sentences_: The superior court issued a writ of ____. The case
was ____ to the lower court. His instructions were not discretionary,
but ____. At your ____ the ____ has been issued. The ____ promptly
____ the orders of the offending officer.
(send): (1) permit, submit, commit, remit, transmit,
mission, missile, missionary, remiss, omission, commission, admission,
dismissal, promise, surmise, compromise, mass, message; (2) emit,
intermittent, missive, commissary, emissary, manumission, inadmissible,
premise, demise.
_Sentences_: The ____ could only ____ why so many of his people had
not attended ____. The ____ contained a ____ that no one would be held
____. The request was ____ that he would please ____. He ____ to his ____
without a protest. A ____ was appointed to investigate whether the
territory should be granted ____ as a state. His ____ was such as to ____
him to tarry if he chose.
(move): (1) move, movement, removal, remote,
promote, promotion, motion, motive, emotion, commotion, motor, locomotive,
mob, mobilize, automobile, moment; (2) immovable, motivate, locomotor
ataxia, mobility, immobile, momentum.
_Sentences_: The next ____ was his, and his ____ was profound.
The ____ of the ____ from across the alley enabled the ____ to surge in a
threatening ____ toward the rear of the building. At this ____ the ____
was great. The officer whose ____ had seemed so ____ was now enabled
to ____ strong forces for the campaign. The ____ began a slow ____
forward. His exact ____ was not known.
(suffer): (1) passion, passive, impassive, impassioned,
compassion, pathos, pathetic, impatient, apathy, sympathy, antipathy; (2)
passible, impassible, dispassionate, pathology, telepathy, hydropathy,
homeopathy, allopathy, osteopathy, neuropathic, pathogenesis.
_Sentences_: With an ____ countenance he spoke of the ____ of our
Lord. The ____ of the story moved her to ____. He allowed his ____ no
further expression than through that one ____ shrug. With a ____ smile he
settled back into dull ____. His plea was ____.
(foot): (1) pedal, pedestrian, pedestal, expedite,
expediency, expedition, quadruped, impediment, biped, tripod, chiropodist,
octopus, pew; (2) centiped, pedicle, pedometer, velocipede,
sesquipedalian, antipodes, podium, polypod, polyp, Piedmont.
_Sentences_: A ____ suggested that we could ____ matters by each
mounting a ____. The loss of the ____ was a serious ____ to the rider of
the bicycle. The ____ had me place my foot on an artist's ____. The
purpose of this nautical ____ was to capture a live ____. The ____ of
having so large a ____ for the statue had not occurred to us. A ____
scarcely recognizable as human occupied my ____.
(drive): (1) dispel, compel, propeller, repellent,
repulse, repulsive, impulse, compulsory, expulsion, appeal; (2) appellate,
interpellate.
_Sentences_: After the ____ of the attack the mists along the
lowlands were ____. His manner was ____, even ____. The revolutions of the
____ soon ____ the boatmen to shove farther off. After his ____ he ____
for a rehearing of his case. The act was ____, but he felt an ____ toward
it anyhow.
(hang, weigh): (1) pending, impending,
independent, pendulum, perpendicular, expenditure, pension, suspense,
expense, pensive, compensate, ponder, ponderous, preponderant, pansy,
poise, pound; (2) pendant, stipend, appendix, compendium, propensity,
recompense, indispensable, dispensation, dispensary, avoirdupois.
_Sentences_: The veterans felt great ____ while action regarding
their ____ was ____. We shall ____ you. An arm of it stood in a
position ____ to the ____ mass. He knew that fate was ____, and he watched
the ____ swing back and forth slowly. He gave a ____ argument in favor of
the ____ of the money. There is ____, that's for thoughts. Let us ____ the
question whether the ____ is needful. She was a woman of rare social ____.
Penny-wise, ____ foolish.
(seek): (1 and 2 combined) petition, petulant, impetus,
impetuous, perpetuate, repeat, compete, competent, appetite, centripetal.
_Sentences_: A great ____ force keeps the planets circling about
the sun. The complaints of a ____ woman led him to ____ for the prize. The
sexual ____ leads men to ____ the race. The ____ was pronounced upon ____
authority to be ill drawn up. With ____ wrath he ____ the assertion. The
____ became noticeably weaker.
(fold): (1) ply, reply, imply, plight,
suppliant, explicit, implicit, implicate, supplicate, duplicate,
duplicity, complicate, complicity, accomplice, application, plait,
display, plot, employee, exploit, simple, supple; (2) pliant, pliable,
replica, explication, inexplicable, multiplication, deploy, triple,
quadruple, plexus, duplex.
_Sentences_: We ____ the thief's ____ with questions. He ____ that
others were ____ with him. The king ____ to the ____ that such ____ must
never be ____ in the realm thereafter. It would be a ____ matter to ____
the order. The manager had ____ confidence in his ____. She admired his
courage in this ____, perceived his ____ in the crime, and deplored his
participation in the ____. They ____ him for an ____ promise that mercy
would be shown. She was in a ____, for she had not had time to arrange her
hair in its usual broad ____. He was ____ of body. The ____ was refused.
(place): (1) expose, compose, purpose, posture,
position, composure, impostor, postpone, post office, positive, deposit,
disposition, imposition, deponent, opponent, exponent, component;
(2) depose, impost, composite, apposite, repository, preposition,
interposition, juxtaposition, decomposition.
_Sentences_: The ____ said he would ____ the manner in which the
cashier had made away with the ____. The true ____ of the ____ was now
known, yet he retained his ____. For you to make yourself an ____ of these
wild theories is an ____ on your friends. The closing hour at the ____ is
____ thirty minutes on account of the rush of Christmas mail. He
was ____ that his ____ had ____ the letter. One of the ____ elements in
his ____ was gloom.
(seize): (1) prize, apprise, surprise, comprise,
enterprise, imprison, comprehend, apprehension; (a) reprisal, misprision,
reprehend, prehensile, apprentice, impregnable, reprieve.
_Sentences_: He had no ____ as to what the ____ would ____.
His ____ was so great that he could scarcely ____ the fact that the ____
was his. The judge ____ them of the likelihood that they would be ____.
(prove): (1 and 2 combined) probe, probation, probate,
probity, approbation, reprobate, improbable.
_Sentences_: The young ____ was placed on ____. The will was brought
into the ____ court. It is ____ that such ____ as his will win the ____ of
evil-doers.
(break): (1 and 2 combined) rupture, abrupt, interrupt,
disrupt, eruption, incorruptible, irruption, bankrupt, rout, route,
routine.
_Sentences_: The volcano was in ____. Though ____, he remained
____. The ____ of the barbarians ____ these reforms. The organization was
____ after having already been put to ____. The ____ he had chosen led to
a ____ in their relationships. It was ____ work.
(seat): (1) sedulous, sedentary, supersede,
subside, preside, reside, residue, possess, assessment, session, siege;
(2) sediment, insidious, assiduous, subsidy, obsession, see (noun),
assize.
_Sentences_: The ____ was so small that he scarcely noticed he ____
it. The officer was ____ in making the ____ upon every tax-payer fair.
During the ____ Congress remained in ____. He ____ in the city and has a
____ occupation. When the officer who ____ is firm, such commotions will
quickly ____. He ____ the disgraced commander.
(follow): (1) sequel, sequence, consequence,
subsequent, consecutive, execute, prosecute, persecute, sue, ensue,
suitor, suitable, pursuit, rescue, second; (2) obsequies, obsequious,
sequester, inconsequential, non sequitur, executor, suite.
_Sentences_: On the ____ day they continued the ____. In the ____
chapter of the ____ the heroine is ____. The ____ of events is hard to
follow. The ____ was that her brother began to ____ her ____. The district
attorney ____ six ____ offenders, but thought it useless to bring any ____
offender to trial. It was a ____ occasion.
(cut, separate): (1 and 2 combined) shear,
sheer, shred, share, shard, scar, score, (sea)shore, shorn, shroud, shire,
sheriff.
_Sentences_: The ____ had on his face a ____ made by a ____ thrown at
him. In that ____ an old custom for every one to ____ in the ____ the
sheep. There was, instead of the usual ____, a cliff that rose from the
sea. All ____ as the freshman was, he had hardly a ____ of his former
dignity. The ____ was very one-sided. A ____ of mist was about him.
(sign): (1) sign, signal, signify, signature, consign, design,
assign, designate, resignation, insignificant; (2) ensign, signatory,
insignia.
_Sentences_: He ____ his approval of the ____. The disturbance
caused by his ____ was ____. He ____ no reason for ____ those particular
men. As he could not write his own ____, I ____ the document for him. It
was a ____ defeat.
(loosen): (r) solve, resolve, dissolve, solution,
dissolute, resolute, absolute; (2) solvent, absolution, indissoluble,
assoil.
_Sentences_: On account of his ____ course he had given his parents
many a problem to ____. He ____ the powder in a cupful of water and ____
to give it to the patient. This ____ of the difficulty did not win the
____ approval of his employer. The obstacles were many, but he was ____.
(look): (1) spectator, spectacle, suspect,
aspect, prospect, expect, respectable, disrespect, inspection, speculate,
special, especial, species, specify, specimen, spice, suspicion,
conspicuous, despise, despite, spite; (2) specter, spectrum, spectroscope,
prospector, prospectus, introspection, retrospect, circumspectly,
conspectus, perspective, specie, specification, specious, despicable,
auspices, perspicacity, frontispiece, respite.
_Sentences_: His ____ was conducted in such a manner as to show the
utmost ____. In ____ she noticed an odor of ____. From his ____ you would
have taken him to be a ____ of wild animal. The ____ was better than we
had ____ it to be. Though you have no ____ fondness for children, you will
enjoy the ____ of them playing together. The ____ did not ____ what
underhand tactics some of the players were resorting to. In ____ of all
this, we made a ____ showing. The ____ is one you cannot ____. ____ this
____ of matters, she did not ____ the cause of her ____, but let him ____
what it might be.
(breathe, breath): (1 and 2 combined) spirit,
spiritual, perspire, transpire, respire, aspire, conspiracy, inspiration,
expiration, esprit de corps.
_Sentences_: At the ____ of a few days it ____ that a ____ had
actually been formed. The ____ of the division was such that every man
____ to meet the enemy forthwith. He was a man of much ____ and marked
powers of ____. As he lay there, he merely ____ and ____; he had no
thought whatsoever of things ____.
(stand): (1) stand, stage, statue, stall,
stationary, state, reinstate, station, forestall, instant, instance,
distance, constant, withstand, understand, circumstance, estate,
establish, substance, obstacle, obstinate, destiny, destination,
destitute, substitute, superstition, desist, persist, resist, insist,
assist, exist, consistent, stead, rest, restore, restaurant, contrast; (2)
stature, statute, stadium, stability, instable, static, statistics,
ecstasy, stamen, stamina, standard, stanza, stanchion, capstan, extant,
constabulary, apostate, transubstantiation, status quo, armistice,
solstice, interstice, institute, restitution, constituent, subsistence,
pre-existence, presto.
_Sentences_: The ____ of the motion was that the student who had been
expelled should be ____. He ____ in his ____ resolution to go on the ____.
She could not ____ the pleas of ____ people. He ____ her to alight at the
____. In an ____ you shall ____ what the ____ was that drove me to
tempt ____ thus. We had gone but a little ____ when I perceived by the
hungry working of his jaws that his ____ was the ____ in the next block.
No ____ could cause him to ____. She was ____ in a ____ at the bazaar.
(place): (1 and 2 combined) stead, steadfast, instead,
homestead, farmstead, roadstead, bestead.
_Sentences_: ____ of resting in a harbor, the ships were tossed about
in an open ____. Little did it ____ him to cling to the old ____. A ____
nestled by the highway. To be known as ____ now stood him in good ____.
(bind): (1) district, restrict, strictly,
stringent, strain, restrain, constrain; (2) stricture, constriction, boa
constrictor, astringent, strait, stress.
_Sentences_: We ____ them by means of ____ regulations. He ____ them
to this course by his mere example. He attended ____ to his duties. You
should not ____ your pleasures in this way. The ____ of long effort was
telling on him.
(touch): (1) tact, contact, intact,
intangible, attain, taint, stain, tinge, contingent, integrity, entire,
tint; (2) tactile, tactual, tangent, distain, attaint, attainder, integer,
disintegrate, contagion, contaminate, contiguous.
_Sentences_: His appointment is ____ upon his removing this ____ from
his name. His ____ is such that no ____ with evil could leave any ____
upon him. The contents were ____. With ____ he hopes to ____ the ____
approval of his auditors. It was a dark ____. The reason is ____.
(cut): (1 and 2 combined) detail, curtail, entail, retail,
tailor, tally.
_Sentences_: He held the property in ____. He kept the reckoning
straight by means of ____ cut in a shingle. He resolved to ____ expenses
by visiting the ____ less often. We need not go into ____. The profit lies
in the difference between wholesale and ____ prices.
(hold--for related _ten_ group see above under Two
Admonitions): (1 and 2 combined) detain, abstain, contain, obtain,
maintain, entertain, pertain, appertain, sustain, retain.
_Sentences_: Village life and things ____ thereto I shall willingly
____ from. I ____ that precepts of this kind in no sense ____ to public
morals. If the gentleman can ____ the consent of his second, the chair
will ____ the motion as he restates it. Though your forces may ____ heavy
losses, they must ____ their position and ____ the enemy.
(end, bound): (1 and 2 combined) term, terminus,
terminal, terminate, determine, indeterminate, interminable, exterminate.
_Sentences_: At the ____ of the railroad stands a beautiful ____
station. The manner in which we may ____ the agreement remains ____.
He ____ that rather than yield he would make the negotiations ____. During
the second ____ they ____ all the rodents about the school.
(twist): (1) torture, tortoise, retort, contort, distortion,
extortionate, torch, (apple) tart, truss, nasturtium; (2) tort, tortuous,
torsion, Dry Tortugas.
_Sentences_: By the light of the ____ he saw a ____ fowl by the
fireside and a ____ in the cupboard. The ____ of his countenance was due
to the ____ he was undergoing. ____ his face into a very knowing look, he
____ that a man with a ____ in his buttonhole and ____ shell glasses on
his nose had leered at the girls as he passed.
(draw): (1) tract, tractor, intractable, abstracted,
retract, protract, detract, distract, attractive, contractor, trace,
trail, train, trait, portray, retreat; (2) traction, tractate, distraught,
extraction, subtraction.
_Sentences_: In an ____ manner he drove the ____ across a large ____
of ground. He ____ his gaze at the ____ girl. The ____ was now willing to
____ his statement that in the house as it stood there was no ____ of
departure from the specifications. Down the weary ____ of the pioneer
dashes the palatial modern ____. To be ____ was one of his ____. The
artist ____ her as in a ____ state. The ____ of his forces ____ but little
from his fame.
(come): (1) convene, convenient, avenue, revenue,
prevent, event, inventor, adventure, convention, circumvent; (2) venire,
venue, parvenu, advent, adventitious, convent, preventive, eventuate,
intervention.
_Sentences_: The legislature ____ in order to pass a measure
regarding the public ____. At the ____ the wily old politician was able to
____ his enemies. The ____ saw no means of ____ this infringement of his
patent right. In that ____ we are likely to have an ____. Through the
long, shaded ____ they strolled together.
(turn): (1) avert, divert, convert, invert, pervert,
advertize, inadvertent, verse, aversion, adverse, adversity, adversary,
version, anniversary, versatile, divers, diversity, conversation,
perverse, universe, university, traverse, subversive, divorce;
(2) vertebra, vertigo, controvert, revert, averse, versus, versification,
animadversion, vice versa, controversy, tergiversation, obverse,
transverse, reversion, vortex.
_Sentences_: Though he carried a large ____ of goods, he was ____ to
____ them. He had ____ forgotten that it was his wedding ____. The ____
was on ____ subjects. They ____ a broad area where nothing had been done
to ____ the danger that threatened them. With ____ stubbornness he held to
his ____ of the story. He held that the reading of ____ is ____ of
masculine qualities. His professors at the ____ soon ____ him to new
social and economic theories. Her husband was such a ____ creature that
she resolved to secure a ____. Americans are the most ____ people in the
____. The anecdote ____ his ____ himself. Her answer not only was ____,
it revealed her ____. He had undergone grave ____ in his time.
(conquer): (1 and 2 combined) evince, convince,
province, invincible, evict, convict, conviction, victorious.
_Sentences_: He was ____ that the campaign against the rebels in
the ____ could not be ____. He ____ a lively interest in my theory that
the fugitive could not be ____. He felt an ____ repugnance to ____ the
man, and this in spite of his ____ that the man was guilty.
(call, voice): (1) vocal, vocation, advocate,
irrevocable, vociferous, provoke, revoke, evoke, convoke;
(2) vocable, vocabulary, avocation, equivocal, invoke, avouch, vouchsafe.
_Sentences_: He was a ____ ____ of the measure, but no sooner was
the order issued than he wished it ____. In ____ the assembly he ____ the
enthusiasm of his followers. That he should give ____ utterance to this
thought ____ me; but the words, once spoken, were ____.
(roll, turn): (1) involve, devolve, revolver,
evolution, revolutionary, revolt, voluble, volume, vault; (2) circumvolve,
convolution, convolvulus.
_Sentences_: It ____ upon me to put down the ____. In this ____ the
heroine is ____ and the hero handy with a ____. He was ____ in a ____
uprising. He had laid the papers away in a ____. The ____ of civilization
is a tedious story.
SECOND GENERAL EXERCISE
Copy both sections (the first consists of fairly familiar terms, the
second of less familiar terms) of each of the following word-groups.
Find the key-syllable, underscore it in each word, observe any
modifications in its form. Decide for yourself what its meaning is; then
verify or correct your conclusion by reference to the dictionary. Study
the influence of the key-syllable upon the meaning of each separate word;
find the word's original signification, its present signification. Add to
each word-group as many cognate words as you can (1) think of for
yourself, (2) find in the dictionary by looking under the key-syllable.
Fill the blanks in the sentences after each word-group with terms chosen
from the first section of words in that group.
(1) Animosity, unanimous, magnanimity;
(2) animate, animadvert, equanimity.
_Sentences_: It was the ____ opinion that to so noble a foe ____
should be shown. The spiteful man continued to display his ____.
(1) Annual, annuity, anniversary, perennial, centennial, solemn;
(2) superannuate, biennial, millennium.
_Sentences_: The amateur gardener made the ____ discovery that the
plant was a ____. The ____ celebration of the great man's birth took a
____ and imposing form in our city. By a happy coincidence the increase in
his ____ came on his wedding ____.
(1) Audit, auditor, auditorium, audience, inaudible, obey;
(2) aurist, auricular, auscultation.
_Sentences_: His voice may not have been ____, but it certainly did
not fill the ____. Not one ____ in all that vast ____ but was willing to
____ his slightest suggestion. He was not willing that they should ____
his accounts.
(1) Automatic, automobile, autocrat, autobiography;
(2) autograph, autonomy.
_Sentences_: The ____ dictated to his secretary the third chapter
of his ____. The habit of changing gear properly in an ____ becomes
almost ____.
(1) Cant, descant, incantation, chant, enchant, chanticleer, accent,
incentive;
(2) canto, canticle, cantata, recant, chantry, chanson, precentor.
_Sentences_: He ____ upon this topic in a queer, foreign ____.
Such utterances are mere sanctimonious ____; I had rather listen to the
____ of a voodoo conjurer. The little girl from the city was ____ with the
crowing of ____. The ____ of the choir somehow gave him the ____ to try
again.
(1) Cent, per cent, century, centennial;
(2) centenary, centime, centurion, centimeter, centigrade.
_Sentences_: For nearly a ____ this family has been living on a small
____ of its income. I wouldn't give a ____ for ____ honors; I want my
reward now.
(1) Chronic, chronological, chronicle;
(2) chronometer, synchronize, anachronism.
_Sentences_: It is a ____ record of changing activities and ____
ills. This page is a ____ of athletic news.
(1) Corps, corpse, corporal, corpulent, corporation, incorporate;
(2) corpus, habeas corpus, corporeal, corpuscle, Corpus Christi.
_Sentences_: The ____ gentleman said he did not believe in ____
punishment. The hospital ____ carried the ____ into the office of a great
____. He resolved to ____ this idea into the reforms he was introducing.
(1 and 2 combined) Creed, credulous, credential, credit, accredit,
discredit, incredible.
_Sentences_: He was not so ____ as to suppose that his ____ would be
accepted and his statements ____ without some investigation. It is to his
____ that he refused to be bound by his former religious ____. That such
____ has been heaped upon him is ____.
(1) Crescent, increase, decrease, concrete, recruit, accrue, crew;
(2) crescendo, excrescence, accretion, increment.
_Sentences_: The ____ now had ____ evidence that military life was
not altogether pleasant. In the olden days on the sea deaths from scurvy
might bring about a dangerous ____ in the size of the ____. His courage
____ with the profits that ____ to him. The ____ moon rode in the sky.
(1) Cure, secure, procure, sinecure, curious, inaccurate;
(2) curate, curator.
_Sentences_: Occupying the position for a while will ____ you of the
notion that it is a ____. He was ____ to know so a bookkeeper had managed
to ____ so high a salary. He ____ the equipment required.
(1 and 2 combined) Indignity, indignation, undignified, condign, deign,
dainty.
_Sentences_: We must not be too ____ about visiting ____ punishment
upon those responsible for this ____. He did not ____ to express his ____.
It was an ____ act.
(1) Durable, endure, during, duration, obdurate;
(2) durance, duress, indurate, perdurable.
_Sentences_: ____ the whole interview she remained ____. It is a
____ cloth; it will ____ all sorts of weather. The session was one of
prolonged ____.
(1) Finite, infinite, define, definite, confine, final, in fine,
unfinished;
(2) definitive, infinitesimal.
_Sentences_: One cannot ____ the ____. He ____ himself to purely ____
topics. ____ it was a ____ offer and the ____ one he expected to make.
The bridge is still ____.
(1) Flexibility, inflexible, deflect, inflection, reflection, reflex;
(2) circumflex, genuflection.
_Sentences_: The ____ influence of this act was great. I did not like
the ____ of his voice. After some ____ he decided to remain ____. He was
not to be ____ from his purpose. I could but admire the ____ of her tones.
(1) Fluent, affluent, influence, influenza, superfluous, fluid, influx,
flush (rush of water), fluctuate;
(2) confluent, mellifluous, flux, reflux, effluvium, flume.
_Sentences_: When you ____ the basin, an ____ of water fills it
again. He is an ____ man and a ____ writer. When I had ____, the doctor
gave me a disgusting ____ to drink. The wind must have an ____ in making
the waves ____ as they do. Any more would be ____.
(1) Fort, forte, effort, comfort, fortitude, fortify, fortress;
(2) aqua fortis, pianoforte.
_Sentences_: The defenders of the ____ held out with great ____.
Though a ____ or two stood at important passes, the border was not really
____. His ____ was not public speaking. It was the only by an ____ that he
could ____ them.
(1) Fraction, infraction, fracture, fragility, fragment, suffrage, frail,
infringe;
(2) diffract, refractory, frangible.
_Sentences_: It was in the course of his ____ of the rules that he
suffered the ____ of his collar-bone. He told the committee of ladies that
he was as fond of ____ as of ____. It is hardly a proof of ____ that he is
so willing to ____ upon the rights of others. The ____ scaffolding bent
and swung as he trod it.
(1 and 2 combined) Fugitive, fugue, refuge, subterfuge, centrifugal.
_Sentences_: Closing his eyes as if to listen better to the ____ was
a little ____ of his. The upward movement of the missile was arrested by
the ____ attraction of the earth. The ____ took ____ in an abandoned barn.
(1) Refund, confound, foundry, confuse, suffuse, profuse, refuse, diffuse;
(2) fusion, effusion, transfuse.
_Sentences_: With ____ cheeks and ____ utterance he made a ____
apology. The amount we lost through the defective work at your ____ should
be ____ to us. Such a blow might ____ but not ____ him. He ____ the
appointment.
(1) Belligerent, gesture, suggest, congested, digestion, register, jest;
(2) gerund, congeries.
_Sentences_: As he stopped before the cash ____ he gave a ____ which
showed that his ____ was none too good. His look was ____, but he lightly
made a ____. Amid the ____ traffic she stopped to ____ that pink would be
more becoming than lavender.
(1) Relate, translate, legislate, elation, dilated, dilatory;
(2) collate, correlate, prelate, oblation, superlative, ablative.
_Sentences_: With ____ eyes he ____ the passage for me. The ____ was
very ____ in agreeing upon the measure to be passed. He ____ the story
with pride and ____.
(1) Locate, locality, locomotive, dislocate;
(2) locale, allocate, collocation.
_Sentences_: In trying to ____ the mine as near the fissure as
possible he fell and ____ his hip. It was only ____ in that entire ____.
(1) Soliloquy, loquacious, loquacity, colloquial, eloquent, obloquy,
circumlocution, elocution;
(2) magniloquent, grandiloquent, ventriloquism, interlocutor, locutory,
allocution. (For related _log_ and _ology_ words see above under
Prying Into a Word's Relationships.)
_Sentences_: ____ always, he indulged at this time in a great deal
of ____. Though it was mere ____, yet there was something ____ about it.
Amid all this ____ he managed to rid himself of a good deal of ____
regarding Standish. Hamlet's ____ on suicide is a famous passage.
(1) Allude, elude, delude, ludicrous, illusory, collusion;
(2) prelude, postlude, interlude.
_Sentences_: Such evidence is ____, and belief in it is ____.
He ____ to a possible ____ between them. The more credulous ones he ____,
and the skeptical he manages to ____.
(1) Metrical, thermometer, barometer, pedometer, diametrically, geometry;
(2) millimeter, chronometer, hydrometer, trigonometry, pentameter.
_Sentences_: He was careful to consult both the ____ and the ____.
He always wore a ____ on these trips. The two were ____ opposed to each
other. The poet has great ____ skill. ____ is an exact science.
(1) Monotone, monotonous, monoplane, monopoly, monocle, monarchy,
monogram, monomania;
(2) monosyllable, monochrome, monogamy, monorail, monograph, monolith,
monody, monologue, monad, monastery, monk.
_Sentences_: His eye held a ____, his gold ring bore a ____ seal,
and his voice was a stilted ____. One thing I hate about a ____ is the
____ reference to everything as his majesty's. He had a ____ of the trade
in his town. He is suffering, not from madness, but from ____.
(1) Mortal, immortality, mortify, postmortem, mortgage, morgue;
(2) mortmain, moribund, À la mort.
_Sentences_: After a hasty ____ examination, the body was taken to
the ____. She was ____ at this reminder of the ____ on her father's
property. The ____ shall put on ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Mutual, mutation, permutation, commute, transmute,
immutable, moult.
_Sentences_: As he ____ that morning he reflected upon the ____ and
combinations of fortune. We suffer the ____ of this worldly life, but
ourselves are not ____. God's love is ____, and our love for each other
should be ____. Birds when they ____ are weakened in body and depressed in
spirit.
(1) Native, prenatal, innate, nature, unnatural, naturalize, nation,
pregnant, puny;
(2) denatured, nativity, cognate, agnate, nascent, renascence, née.
_Sentences_: It was some ____ influence, he thought, that gave him
his ____ physique. It was a ____ reply, but its heartlessness was ____.
He was not ____ to the country, but ____. ____ in his ____ was the love
of his own ____.
(1) Note, notion, notable, notice, notorious, cognizant, incognito,
recognize, noble, ignoble, ennoble, ignore, ignorance, ignoramus,
reconnoiter, quaint, acquaintance;
(2) notary, notation, connotation, cognition, prognosticate,
reconnaissance, connoisseur.
_Sentences_: In complete ____ of the enemy's position, he decided
that he would ____ it. ____ himself, he was ____ of what was going on
about him. You must ____ the conduct of such an ____. His ____ with this
____ gentleman ____ him. He ____ but would not ____ this ____ fellow.
The ____ is a ____ one. He could but ____ how ____ his brother had become.
(1) Panacea, panoply, panorama, pantomime, pan-American, pandemonium;
(2) pantheist, pantheon.
_Sentences_: Arrayed in all the ____ of savages, they acted the scene
out in ____. From this point the ____ of the country-side unrolled itself
before him. It is no ____ for human ills; any supposition that it is will
lead to ____. It is a ____ movement.
(1) Peter, petrify, petrol, stormy petrel, petroleum, saltpeter, pier;
(2) petrology, parsley, samphire.
_Sentences_: As he walked along the ____, he observed the flight of
the ____. The English name for gasoline is ____. ____ is used in the
manufacture of gunpowder. He was almost ____ at hearing of this enormous
stock of ____. The crowing of the cock caused ____ to weep bitterly.
(1 and 2 combined) Petty, petite, petit jury, petit larceny, petticoat,
pettifogger.
_Sentences_: Charged with ____, he was tried by the ____. The
contemptible ____ hid behind the ____ of his wife. She was a winsome
maiden, dainty and ____. It is a ____ fault.
(1 and 2 combined) Philosophy, philanthropy, Philadelphia, bibliophile,
Anglophile.
_Sentences_: His ____ was generous, but his ____ was not profound.
That queer old ____ hangs to the library like a caterpillar. It was the
love of humankind that caused Penn to name the city ____. Most Americans
are not ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Cosmopolitan, metropolitan, politics, policy, police.
_Sentences_: Those who engage in ____ lack, as a rule, a ____
outlook. It is merely ____ intolerance of towns and villages. The ____ of
the mayor was to increase the ____ force.
(1 and 2 combined) Potential, potency, potentate, impotent, omnipotent,
plenipotentiary.
_Sentences_: So far from being ____, we possess a ____ difficult to
estimate. The ____ sent an ambassador ____. A ____ solution of the problem
is this. ____ God.
(1) Impute, compute, dispute, ill repute, reputation, disreputable;
(2) putative, indisputable.
_Sentences_: She could not ____ the cost. There was some ____ as to
the cause of his ____. Let them ____ to me what motives they will. Though
somewhat ____, he was extremely solicitous about his ____.
(1) Abrogate, arrogate, interrogate, arrogant, derogatory, prerogative;
(2) surrogate, rogation, prorogue.
_Sentences_: In an ____ manner he ____ these ____ to himself. To ____
authority is to give opportunity for remarks ____ to one's reputation. He
skilfully ____ the witness.
(1) Salmon, sally, assail, assault, insult, consult, result, exultation,
desultory;
(2) salient, salacious, resilient.
_Sentences_: After the ____ the firing was ____. The defenders ____
out and ____ us, but the ____ of this effort only added to our ____. We
sat there watching the ____ leap over the waterfall and ____ about our
arrangements for taking them. To accept the remark as an ____ is to
acknowledge the speaker as an equal.
(1) Science, conscience, unconscious, prescience, omniscience, nice;
(2) sciolist, adscititious, plebiscite.
_Sentences_: By his ____ understanding of the issues he was able to
gain a reputation for ____. We thought he possessed ____, but he seemed
____ of his erudition. Except under the sharp necessities of ____, he was
ruled by a ____ thoroughly tender.
(1) Sect, section, non-sectarian, dissect, insect, intersection, sickle,
vivisection, segment;
(2) bisect, trisect, insection, sector, secant.
_Sentences_: He stood at the ____ of the roads, leaning on the shank
of a sharp ____. The foreman of the ____ gang is a member of our ____. The
boy was ____ an ____ with a butcher knife he had previously used to cut
for himself a large ____ of the Sunday cake. It is a ____ movement. He
defended the ____ of animals.
(1) Sense, consent, assent, resent, sentimental, dissension, sensation,
sensibility, sentence, scent, nonsense;
(2) sentient, consensus, presentiment.
_Sentences_: A woman of her ____ would shrink from a ____ of this
sort. He ____ in a single, crisp ____. To be ____ is to be guilty of ____.
He had the good ____ to ____ to this course. He ____ such ____ and the
causes that produced them. A hound hunts by ____.
(1) Despond, respond, correspond, corespondent, sponsor;
(2) sponsion, spouse, espouse.
_Sentences_: She ____ that her husband had been ____ with the ____.
The ____ of the movement could as yet see no reason to ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Structure, instructor, construct, obstruct, instrument,
destructive, misconstrue.
_Sentences_: The student ____ the intentions of his ____. He resolved
to ____ every effort to complete the ____. The ____ was one that might
easily be turned to ____ work. They ____ a grandstand overlooking the
racetrack.
(1) Terrace, territory, subterranean, inter, terrier;
(2) terrene, tureen, terrestrial, terra cotta, Mediterranean, terra firma,
parterre.
_Sentences_: The ____ was tearing a great hole in the ____ in order
to ____ a bone. He found rich ____ deposits. The discoverers laid claim to
the entire ____.
(1) Thesis, parenthesis, antithesis, anathema, theme, epithet, treasure;
(2) hypothesis, synthesis, metathesis.
_Sentences_: To set two ideas in ____ to each other makes both more
vivid. By way of ____ he informed me that the subject was ____ to his
father. On this ____ he can summon a host of picturesque ____. The ____ is
one you will find it hard to establish. He was seeking Captain Kidd's
buried ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Tumor, tumidity, tumult, tumulus, contumacy.
_Sentences_: The ____ of his joints was due to rheumatism. His ____
led to a ____ of opposition. So excited was he at the discovery of the
____ that he did not permit the ____ on his hand to restrain him from
beginning the excavation.
(1 and 2 combined) Turbid, disturb, perturbation, turbulence, trouble,
imperturbable.
_Sentences_: His ____ manner gave no hint of the ____ within him. The
____ sweep of the stream caused her not the slightest ____. Do not ____
yourself with the thought that you are putting me to any ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Pervade, invade, evasion, vade mecum.
_Sentences_: He promised that there would be no ____ of payments.
Byron's _Childe Harold_ was my ____ during my travels in Switzerland
and Italy. The fragrance of heliotrope ____ the room. You must not ____ my
privacy like this.
(1) Avail, prevail, prevalent, equivalent, valiant, validity, invalid,
invalidate; (2) valetudinarian, valediction, valence.
_Sentences_: The ____ of the agreement has been thoroughly
established. Our cause is just, and must ____. It is ____ to admitting
that the terms are now ____. It was a ____ act and ____ the concessions
previously wrested from us. The ____ impression is that mere ingenuity
will not ____.
(1) Virtue, virile, virgin, virtually; (2) virago, virtuoso, triumvir.
_Sentences_: It was ____ a new arrangement. It is ____ soil. To
be ____ and daring is every boy's dream. ____ is its own reward.
(1) Revive, survival, convivial, vivid, vivify, vivacious, vivisection;
(2) vive (le roi), qui vive, bon vivant, tableau vivant.
_Sentences_: He has a ____ manner, a ____ spirit. The ____ of the
opposition to the ____ of animals is very marked. You cannot ____ a dead
cause or scarcely ____ memories of it. The ____ coloring of her cheeks was
a sure sign of health, or of skill.
THIRD GENERAL EXERCISE
Find the key-syllable (in a few instances the key-syllables) of each of
the following words. How does it affect the meaning of the word? Does it
appear, perhaps in disguised form, in any of the words immediately
preceding or following? Can you bring to mind other words that embody it?
Innovation Commonwealth Welfare Wayfarer
Adjournment Rival Derivation Arrive
Denunciation Denomination Ignominy Synonym
Patronymic Parliament Dormitory Demented
Presumptuous Indent Dandelion Trident
Indenture Contemporary Disseminate Annoy
Odium Desolate Impugn Efflorescent
Arbor vitae Consider Constellation Disaster
Suburb Address Dirigible Dirge
Indirectly Desperate Inoperative Benevolent
Voluntary Offend Enumerate Dilapidate
Request Exquisite Exonerate Approximate
Insinuate Resurgence Insurrection Rapture
Exasperate Complacent Dimension Commensurate
Preclude Cloister Turnpike Travesty
Atone Incarnate Charnal Etiquette
Rejuvenate Eradicate Quiet Requiem
Acquiesce Ambidextrous Inoculate Divulge
Proper Appropriate Omnivorous Voracious
Devour Escritoire Mordant Remorse
Miser Hilarious Exhilarate Rudiment
Erudite Mark Marquis Libel
Libretto Vague Vagabond Extravagant
Souse Saucer Oyster Ostracize
FOURTH GENERAL EXERCISE
With a few exceptions like the Hale-heal group above under Verbal
Families, most verbal families of straight English or of Germanic-
Scandinavian-English descent are easily recognizable as families. Witness
the _Good_ family and the _Stead_ family. The families in which
kinship may be overlooked are likely to be of Latin or Greek ancestry,
though perhaps with a subsequent infusion of blood from some other foreign
language, as French. Hitherto our approach to verbal families has been
through the descendants, or through that quality in their blood which
holds them together. But we shall also profit from knowing something of
the founders of these families--from having some acquaintance with them as
individuals. Below (in separate lists) the more prominent of Latin and of
Greek progenitors are named, their meaning is given, and two or three of
their living representatives (not always direct descendants) are
designated. Starred [*] words are those whose progeny has not been in good
part assembled in the preceding pages; for these words you should assemble
all the living representatives you can. (Inflectional forms are given only
where they are needed for tracing English derivatives.)
_Latin word Meaning English representatives_
Ago, actum do, rouse agile, transact
*Alius other alias, inalienable
*Alter other alteration, adultery
*Altus high altitude, exalt
*Ambulo walk perambulator, preamble
*Amicus friend amicable, enemy
*Amo, amatum love inamorata, amateur, inimical
*Anima life animal, inanimate
Animus mind animosity, unanimous
Annus year annuity, biennial
*Aqua water aquarium, aqueduct
Audio, auditum hear audience, audit
*Bellum war rebel, belligerent
*Bene well benefit, benevolence
*Bonus good bonanza, bona fide
*Brevis short abbreviate, unabridged
Cado, casum fall cadence, casual
Caedo, cecidi, caesum cut, kill suicide, incision
Cano, cantum sing recant, chanticleer
Capio, captum take, hold capacious, incipient
*Caput, capitis head cape (Cape Cod), decapitate,
chapter, biceps
Cedo, cessum go concede, accessory
Centum hundred per cent, centigrade
*Civis citizen civic, uncivilized
*Clamo shout acclaim, declamation
*Claudo, clausum close, shut conclude, recluse, cloister, sluice
Cognosco (see _Nosco_)
*Coquo, coxi, coctum cook decoction, precocious
*Cor, cordis heart core, discord, courage
Corpus body corpse, incorporate
Credo, credituin believe creed, discreditable
Cresco, cretum grow crescendo, concrete, accrue
*Crux, crucis cross crucifix, excruciating
Cura care curate, sinecure
Curro, cursum run occur, concourse
*Derigo, directum direct dirge, dirigible, address
*Dexter right, right hand ambidextrous, dexterity
Dico speak, say abdicate, verdict
*Dies day diary, quotidian
Dignus worthy, fitting dignity, condign
Do, datum give condone, data
*Doceo, doctum teach document, doctor
*Dominus lord dominion, danger
*Domus house domicile, majordomo
*Dormio sleep dormant, dormouse
Duco lead traduce, deduction
*Duo two dubious, duet
Durus hard durable, obdurate
Eo, itum go exit, initial
Error, erratum wander erroneous, aberration
Facio, feci, factum make, do manufacture, affect, sufficient,
verify
Fero, latum carry transfer, relate
Fido trust, believe confide, perfidious
Finis end confine, infinity
Flecto, flexum bend reflection, inflexible
Fluo, fluxum flow influence, reflux
Fortis strong fortress, comfort
Frango, fractum break infringe, refraction
*Frater brother fraternity, fratricide
Fugio, fugitum flee centrifugal, fugitive
Fundo, fusum pour refund, profuse, fusion
Gero, gestum carry belligerent, gesture, digestion
Gradior, gressus walk degrade, progress
*Gratia favor, pleasure, ingratiate, congratulate,
good-will disgrace
*Grex, gregis flock segregate, egregious
Habeo, habitum have, hold habituate, prohibit
Itum (see Eo)
Jacio, jeci, jactum throw, hurl reject, interjection
Jungo, junctum join conjugal, enjoin, juncture
Juro swear abjure, perjury
Jus, juris law, right justice, jurisprudence
Judex (from jusdico) judge judgment, prejudice
*Juvenis young rejuvenate, juvenilia
Latum (see Fero)
*Laudo, laudatum praise allow, laudatory
Lego, lectum read, choose elegant, lecture, dialect
*Lex, legis law privilege, illegitimate,
legislature
*Liber book libel, library
*Liber free liberty, deliberate
Ligo bind obligation, allegiance, alliance
*Linquo, lictum leave delinquent, relict, derelict
*Litera letter illiterate, obliterate
Locus place collocation, dislocate
Loquor, locutus speak soliloquy, elocution
Ludo, lusum play prelude, illusory
/Lux, lucis light\ lucid, luminary
\Lumen, luminis /
*Magnus great magnate, magnificent
*Malus bad, evil malaria, malnutrition
Mando order mandatory, commandment
Manus hand manual, manufacture
*Mare sea maritime, submarine
*Mater mother maternal, alma mater
*Medius middle mediocre, intermediate
*Mens mind mental, demented
*Miror wonder mirror, admirable
Mitto, missum send commit, emissary
*Mordeo, morsum bite mordant, morsel, remorse
Mors, mortis death mortal, mortify
Moveo, motum move remove, locomotive
*Multus many multiform, multiplex
Muto, mutatum change transmute, immutable, moult
Nascor, natus be born renascence, cognate
*Nihil nothing nihilism, annihilate
*Nomen, nominis name denomination, renown
*Norma rule abnormal, enormous
/Nosco, notum cognosco \
\ cognitum know / notation, incognito
*Novus new novelty, renovate
*Nuntio announce denounce, renunciation
*Opus, operis work magnum opus, inoperative
*Pater father patrician, patrimony
Patior, passus suffer impatient, passion
Pello, pulsum drive propeller, repulse
Pendeo, pensum hang pendulum, appendix
Pendo, pensum weigh compendium, expense
Pes, pedis foot expedite, biped
Peto seek impetus, compete
*Plaudo, plausum clap, applaud explode, plausible
*Plecto, plexum braid perplex, complexion
*Pleo, pletum fill complement, expletive
*Plus, pluris more surplus, plural
Plico, plicatum fold reply, implicate
Pono, positum place opponent, deposit
Porto carry report, porter
Potens, potentis powerful impotent, potential
Prendo, prehensum seize comprehend, apprise
*Primus, primatis first primary, primate
Probo, probatum prove improbable, reprobate
*Pugno fight impugn, repugnant
Puto think impute, disreputable
*Quaero, quaesitum seek require, inquest, exquisite
*Rapio, raptum seize enraptured, surreptitious
*Rego, rectum rule, lead region, erect
*Rideo, risum laugh deride, risible
Rogo, rogatum ask prorogue, abrogate
Rumpo, ruptum break disrupt, eruption
Salio, saltum leap salient, insult
*Sanguis blood sang froid, ensanguined
Scio, scitum know prescience, plebiscite
Scribo, scriptum write prescribe, manuscript, escritoire
Seco, sectum cut secant, dissect
Sedeo, sessum sit supersede, obsession
Sentio, sensum feel presentiment, consensus
Sequor, secutus follow sequence, persecute, ensue
Signum sign insignia, designate
*Solus alone solitude, desolate
Solvo, solutum loosen solvent, dissolute
*Somnus sleep somnambulist, insomnia
*Sono sound consonant, resonance
*Sors, sortis lot sort, assortment
Specio, spectum look despicable, suspect
Spiro, spiratum breathe perspire, conspiracy
*Spondeo, sponsum promise respond, espouse
Sto, steti, statum stand constant, establish
Sisto, stiti, statum cause to stand consistent, superstition
Stringo, strictum bind stringent, restrict
Struo, structum build construe, destruction
Tango, tactum touch intangible, tact
Tempus, temporis time temporize, contemporary
Tendo, tensum stretch distend, intense
Teneo, tentuin hold tenure, detention
*Tendo try tentative, attempt
Terminus end, boundary terminal, exterminate
Terra earth territory, inter
Torqueo, tortum twist distort, tortuous
Traho, tractum draw extract, subtraction
Tumeo, tumidum swell tumor, contumacy
Turba tumult, crowd turbulent, disturb
*Unus one unify, triune, onion
*Urbs city urbane, suburban
Vado, vasum go pervade, invasion
Valeo, validum be strong prevail, invalid
Venio, ventum come intervene, adventure
Verto, versum turn divert, adverse
*Verus true verdict, veracity
*Via way obviate, impervious, trivial
Video, visum see provide, revise
Vinco, victum conquer province, convict
Vir man triumvir, virtue
Vivo, victum live vivacious, vivisect
Voco, vocatum call revoke, avocation
*Volo wish malevolent, voluntary
Volvo, volutum turn revolver, evolution
Vox voice equivocal, vociferate
_Prefix Meaning English embodiments_
*A, ab from, away avert, abnegation, abstract
*Ad to adduce, adjacent, affect, accede
*Ante before antediluvian, anteroom
*Bi two biped, bicycle
*Circum around circumambient, circumference
*Cum, com, with, together combine, consort, coadjutor
con, co
*Contra against contradict, contrast
*De from, negative deplete, decry, demerit, declaim
down, intensive
*Di, dis asunder, away from, divert, disbelief
negative
*E, ex from, out of evict, excavate
*Extra beyond extraordinary, extravagant
*In in, into, not innate, instil, insignificant
*Inter among, between intercollegiate, interchange
*Intro, into, within introduce, intramural
intra
*Non negative nonage, nondescript
*Ob against, before
(facing), toward obloquy, obstacle, offer
*Per through, extremely persecute, perfervid, pursue,
pilgrim, pellucid
*Post after postpone, postscript
*Pre before prepay, preoccupy
*Pro before proceed, proffer
*Re back, again return, resound
*Retro back, backward retroactive, retrospective
*Se apart, aside seclude, secession
*Semi half semiannual, semicivilized
*Sub under, less than, subscribe, suffer, subnormal,
inferior subcommittee
*Super above, extremely superfluous, supercritical, soprano
*Trans across, through transfer, transparent
*Ultra beyond, extremely ultramundane, ultraconservative
(Scientific terms in English are largely derived from the Greek)
_Greek word Meaning English representatives_
*Aner, andros, man, stamen androgynous, philander,
anthropos philanthropy
*Archos chief, primitive archaic, architect
*Astron star asterisk, disaster
Autos self autograph, automatic, authentic
*Barvs heavy baritone, barites
*Biblos book Bible, bibliomania
*Bios life biology, autobiography, amphibious
*Cheir hand chiropody, chirurgical, surgeon
*Chilioi a thousand kilogram, kilowatt
*Chroma color chromo, achromatic
Chronos time chronic, anachronism
*Cosmos world, order cosmopolitan, microcosm
*Crypto hide cryptogam, cryptology
*Cyclos wheel, circle encyclopedia, cyclone
*Deca ten decasyllable, decalogue
*Demos people democracy, epidemic
*Derma skin epidermis, taxidermist
*Dis, di twice, doubly dichromatic, digraph
*Didonai, dosis give dose, apodosis, anecdote
*Dynamis power dynamite, dynasty
*Eidos form, thing seen idol, kaleidoscope, anthropoid
*Ethnos race, nation ethnic, ethnology
Eu well euphemism, eulogy
*Gamos marriage cryptogam, bigamy
*Ge earth geography, geometry
Genos family, race gentle, engender
Gramma writing monogram, grammar
Grapho write telegraph, lithograph
*Haima blood hematite, hemorrhage, anemia
*Heteros other heterodox, heterogeneous
*Homos same homonym, homeopathy
*Hydor water hydraulics, hydrophobia, hydrant
*Isos equal isosceles, isotherm
*Lithos stone monolith, chrysolite
Logos word, study theology, dialogue
Metron measure barometer, diameter
*Micros small microscope, microbe
Monos one, alone monoplane, monotone
*Morphe form metamorphosis, amorphous
*Neos new, young neolithic, neophyte
*Neuron nerve neuralgia, neurotic
Nomos law, science, astronomy, gastronomy, economy
management
*Onoma name anonymous, patronymic
*Opsis view, sight synopsis, thanatopsis, optician
*Orthos right orthopedic, orthodox
*Osteon bone osteopathy, periosteum
*Pais, paidos child paideutics, pedagogue,
encyclopedia
Pas, pan all diapason, panacea, pantheism
Pathos suffering allopathy, pathology
Petros rock petroleum, saltpeter
*Phaino show, be visible diaphanous, phenomenon,
epiphany, fantastic
Philos loving bibliophile, Philadelphia
*Phobos fear hydrophobia, Anglophobe
Phone sound telephone, symphony
*Phos light phosphorous, photograph
*Physis nature physiognomy, physiology
*Plasma form cataplasm, protoplasm
*Pneuma air, breath pneumatic, pneumonia
Polis city policy, metropolitan
*Polys many polyandry, polychrome,
polysyllable
Pous, pados foot octopus, chiropodist
*Protos first protoplasm, prototype
*Pseudes false pseudonym, pseudo-classic
*Psyche breath, soul, psychology, psychopathy
mind
*Pyr fire pyrography, pyrotechnics
*Scopos watcher scope, microscope
*Sophia wisdom philosophy, sophomore
*Techne art technicality, architect
*Tele far, far off telepathy, telescope
{*Temno cut }
{*Tomos that which is } epitome, anatomy, tome
{ cut off }
*Theos god theosophy, pantheism
*Therme heat isotherm, thermodynamics
{Tithenai place } epithet, hypothesis,
{Thesis a placing, } anathema
{ arrangement }
*Treis three trichord, trigonometry
*Zoon animal zoology, protozoa, zodiac
_Prefix Meaning English embodiments_
*A, an no, not aseptic, anarchy
*Amphi about, around, ambidextrous, amphitheater
(Latin ambi) both
*Ana up, again anatomy, Anabaptist
*Anti against, opposite antidote, antiphonal, antagonist
*Cata down catalepsy, cataclysm
*Dia through, across diameter, dialogue
*Epi upon epidemic, epithet, epode, ephemeral
*Hyper over, extremely hypercritical, hyperbola
*Hypo under, in smaller hypodermic, hypophosphate
measure
*Meta after, over metaphysics, metaphor
*Para beside paraphrase, paraphernalia
*Peri around, about periscope, peristyle
*Pro before proboscis, prophet
*Syn together, with synthesis, synopsis, sympathy
VI
WORDS IN PAIRS
Our first task in this volume was the study of words in combination. Our
second was the study of individual words in two of their aspects--first,
as they are seen in isolation, next as they are seen in verbal families.
Now our third task confronts us. It is the study of words as they are
associated, not in actual blood kinship, but in meaning.
Such an association in meaning may involve only two words (pairs) or
larger groups. In this chapter we shall confine ourselves to the study of
pairs.
Of the relationship between pairs there are three types. In the first the
words are hostile to each other. In the second they may easily be confused
with each other. In the third they are parallel with each other. We shall
examine the three types successively.
But we must make an explanation first. Although we shall, in this and the
following chapters, have frequent occasion to give the meanings of
individual words, we shall give them without regard to dictionary methods.
We shall not attempt formal, water-tight, or exhaustive definitions; our
purpose is to convey, in the simplest and most human manner possible,
brief general explanations of what the words stand for.
Pairs of the first type are made up of words by nature opposite to each
other, or else thought of as opposite because they are so often
contrasted. Here is a familiar, everyday list:
east, west straight, crooked myself, others
large, small pretty, ugly major, minor
laugh, cry walk, ride light, darkness
top, bottom hard, soft friend, enemy
sweet, sour clean, dirty temporal, spiritual
meat, drink merry, sad means, extremes
land, water private, public Jew, Gentile
man, woman noisy, quiet independent, dependent
old, new general, particular sublime, ridiculous
age, youth wholesale, retail give, receive
sick, well savage, civilized pride, humility
brain, brawn wealth, poverty constructive, destructive
soul, body positive, negative
None of these words needs explaining. If you think of one of them, you
will think of its opposite; at least its opposite will be lurking in the
back of your mind. As proof of this fact you have only to glance at the
following list, from which the second member of each pair is omitted:
hot -- black -- boy -- in --
off -- over -- love -- wrong --
strong -- wet -- first -- day --
long -- fast -- good -- hope --
least -- asleep -- buy -- left --
alive -- winter -- war -- succeed --
creditor -- fat -- internal -- wise --
drunk --
Many words of a more difficult kind are thus pitted against each other,
and we learn them, not singly, but in pairs. At least we should. As good
verbal hunters we should be alert to the chance of killing two birds with
one stone.
_Allopath_ and _homeopath_, for example, are difficult
opposites. We know of the existence of the two classes of medical
practitioners; we know that they use different methods; but beyond this
our knowledge is likely to be hazy. Let us set out, then, to _learn_
the two words. The best way is to learn them together. _Allopathy_
means other suffering, _homeopathy_ like suffering. An allopath uses
remedies which create within the patient a condition that squarely
conflicts with the further progress of the disease. A homeopath prescribes
medicines (in small doses) which produce within the patient the same
condition that the disease would produce; he "beats the disease to it," so
to speak--takes the job himself and leaves the disease nothing to do. The
allopath travels around a race-track in the opposite direction from the
disease, and thwarts it through a head-on collision. The homeopath travels
around the race-track in the same direction as the disease, and thwarts it
by pulling at the reins. If we consider the two words together and get
these ideas in mind, we shall have no further trouble with allopaths and
homeopaths--except, perhaps, when they have rendered their services and
presented their bills.
_Objective_ and _subjective_ are also a troublesome pair. A
thing is objective if it is an actual object or being, if it exists in
itself rather than in our surmises. A thing is subjective if it is the
creature of a state of mind, if it has its existence in the thought or
imagination of some person or other. Thus if I meet a bear in the wilds,
that bear is objective; whatever may be the state of my thoughts, _he is
there_--and it would be to my advantage to reckon with this fact. But
if a child who is sent off to bed alone says there is a bear in the room,
the bear is subjective; it is not a living monster that will devour
anybody, but a creature called into the mind of the child through dread.
EXERCISE - Opposites
Study the following words in pairs. Consult the dictionary for actual
meanings. Then test your knowledge by embodying each word of each pair in
a sentence, or in an illustration like those of the race-track and the
bear in the preceding paragraphs.
superior, inferior concord, discord
export, import domestic, foreign
fact, fiction prose, poetry
verbal, oral literal, figurative
predecessor, successor genuine, artificial
positive, negative practical, theoretical
optimism, pessimism finite, infinite
longitude, latitude evolution, revolution
oriental, occidental pathos, bathos
sacred, profane military, civil
clergy, laity capital, labor
ingress, egress element, compound
horizontal, perpendicular competition, coöperation
predestination, freewill universal, particular
extrinsic, intrinsic inflation, deflation
dorsal, ventral acid, alkali
synonym, antonym prologue, epilogue
nadir, zenith amateur, connoisseur
anterior, posterior stoic, epicure
ordinal, cardinal centripetal, centrifugal
stalagmite, stalactite orthodox, heterodox
homogeneous, heterogeneous monogamy, polygamy
induction, deduction egoism, altruism
Unitarian, Trinitarian concentric, eccentric
herbivorous, carnivorous deciduous, perennial
esoteric, exoteric endogen, exogen
vertebrate, invertebrate catalectic, acatalectic
Pairs of the second type are made up of words which are often confused by
careless writers and speakers, and which should be accurately
discriminated.
Sometimes the words are actually akin to each other. _Continuous-
continual_ and _enormity-enormousness_ are examples. Sometimes
they merely look or sound much alike. _Mean-demean_ and _affect-
effect_ are examples. Sometimes the things they designate are more or
less related, so that the ideas behind the words rather than the words
themselves are responsible for the confusion. _Contagious-infectious_
and _knowledge-wisdom_ are examples. Let us distinguish between the
two members of each of the pairs named.
A thing is _continuous_ if it suffers no interruption whatever,
_continual_ if it is broken at regular intervals but as regularly
renewed. Thus "a continuous stretch of forest"; "the continual drip of
water from the eaves."
_Enormity_ pertains to the moral and sometimes the social,
_enormousness_ to the physical. Thus "the enormity of the crime,"
"the enormity of this social offense"; "the enormousness of prehistoric
animals."
_Demean_ is often used reproachfully because of its supposed relation
to _mean_. But it has nothing to do with _mean_. The word with
which to connect it is _demeanor_ (conduct). Thus "We observed how he
demeaned himself" implies no adverse criticism of either the man or his
deportment. Both may be debased to be sure, but they may be exemplary.
To _affect_ means to feign or to have an influence upon, to
_effect_ to bring to pass. Thus "He affects a fondness for classical
music," "The little orphan's story affected those who heard it"; "We
effected a compromise." _Affect_ is never properly used as a noun.
_Effect_ as a noun means result, consequence, or practical operation.
Thus "The shot took instant effect"; "He put this idea into effect."
A disease is _contagious_ when the only way to catch it is through
direct contact with a person already having it, or through contact with
articles such a person has used. A disease is _infectious_ when it is
presumably caused, not by contact with a person, but through widespread
general conditions, as of climate or sanitation.
Our _knowledge_ is our acquaintance with a fact, or the sum total of
our information. Our _wisdom_ is our intellectual and spiritual
discernment, to which our knowledge is one of the contributors.
_Knowledge_ comprises the materials; _wisdom_ the ability to use
them to practical advantage and to worthy or noble purpose.
_Knowledge_ is mental possession; _wisdom_ is mental and moral
power.
EXERCISE - Confused
1. Consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members of each
of the following pairs. In each blank of the illustrative sentences insert
the word appropriate in meaning.
____ to receive knowledge. ____ to impart
knowledge.
He ____ from laughter. He steadfastly ____ from
evil courses.
Though he always displayed ____, he did not
carry it to the point of ____.
I shall ____ most of the suggestions, but must ____
the one made by Mr. Wheeler.
. When the package was ____ at the local post
office, Bayard refused to ____ it.
. The dull ____ of his head. A sharp ____ below
shoulder-blade. I have known the ____ of cold hands. "My heart ____, and
a drowsy numbness ____ My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk."
. With firmness and ____ he set about reconciling the
factions. Her ____ enabled her to perceive that something was amiss.
. The magnetized iron filings ____. The cold iron
____ to the boy's tongue.
. The ____ of the heated particles to each other
was instantaneous. Amid these trials their ____ to the cause was unshaken.
. His ____ to the room was forced. He obtained
____ into a fraternal order.
. When he ____ that he had a weapon, he practically
____ that he had slain the man.
. He was ____ to going. Their answer was ____.
. In this emergency he sought ____. He asked my ____
as to the best place to hang the picture.
. To let these mishaps ____ you is to ____ your
suffering.
. It is an ____ to suppose that I made any ____
to you.
. It was more than a possible ____; it was an
unmistakable ____.
. Though we call him a(n) ____, he is in skill by no
means the ____ you might think him.
. You are unintentionally ____. These words are
deliberately ____.
. Since we ____ the enemy to advance, would it
not be wise to ____ him?
. He was handsome in ____. The ____ of the sky
was ominous.
. "Lovers and madmen have such seething
brains, Such shaping fantasies, that ____ More than cool reason ever
____."
. The ____ of the worshipers. The ____ of the
soldiers.
. The ____ who was decorating the walls called to an
____ who was mixing mortar.
. We easily made the ____ of the slope, and from
the summit witnessed the balloon ____.
He gave his ____ when I proposed that we wait for
the others to complete the ____ to this point.
I ____ it to you as a fault rather than ____ it to
you as an honor.
It was an informal ____. The ____ considered
the matters it had been called to discuss.
When told that the measure would advance his
interests, he ____; but he would not ____ to it.
The injury was slight, but he ____ it with
unsparing malice. "____, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints."
The lawyer, besides his regular ____, had the
collecting of birds' eggs as his ____.
Though not ____ of the seriousness of his malady,
he was ____ of the pain it caused him.
Darrell added the ____ of the coins, but not
even they brought about the ____ he sought between assets and obligations.
Though ____ socially, he was not what you would
term a ____ man.
His ____ in this time of trial was exemplary.
She praised the ____ of the children at the party.
He possibly had ____, but not an active ____.
Her social manner was ____. The ____ influence
of sunlight.
____ his personal friends, many people he had not
even met stood ____ his sickbed.
At this threat the face of the heroine ____. With a
pail of cheap paint he ____ the dingy wall.
After telling his parishioners to be mindful
of their ____, the clergyman pronounced the ____.
Daily attacks on exposed redoubts marked the
progress of the ____. The fleet lay there in silent ____ of the port.
The incident proved that his ____ was not founded
in real ____.
When you come, ____ the official documents with you.
____ me the scales you will find in the granary yonder.
A man with ____ shoulders stood in the ____, open
doorway.
After they had solemnly ____ their comrade, they ____
the treasure. They also ____ their comrade's dog.
2. Consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members of each
of the following pairs. Determine whether the words are correctly used in
the illustrative sentences. (Some are; some are not.)
Can I stay at home this afternoon, papa? Because of the
floods, the train beyond doubt may not get through.
His character among them was very good. A
man's reputation can never be taken from him.
Your conduct is peevish; it is childishly so.
Her innocence was childlike.
He was always citing snatches of Tennyson. We might
quote Hamlet's soliloquy on suicide as an example of Shakespeare's ability
to go to the heart of deep questions.
He claimed that Jefferson was our third President.
He asserted that bears sleep through the winter.
At the masquerade ball we each wore special
clothing. The mariner who had swum from the wreck to the desert shore had
not a shred of costume.
Comfort after labor. The ease of owning a home.
Petty commercial transactions. A mercantile
treaty.
This pavilion was the common play-house for the
children of the neighborhood. Ward and Aker held this property as their
mutual possession.
This addition is the complement of our
quota. He paid his dancing partner a compliment.
His downrightness is the complement of his
uprightness. As a supplement to his wages he received an occasional bonus.
He put in the completing touches. He had finished
the task.
His composure was not to be shaken. After
this inner tumult came equanimity.
Numbers of such magnitude are
scarcely comprehensible. That men by the million should die for a cause is
a thing not really comprehensive.
Who does not feel within him a compulsion
to help the weak? It was through obligation, through having slave-drivers
stand over them, that these wretched folk built the pyramids.
I congratulated my friend on his
appointment to the commission. I also felicitated the stranger on his
appointment.
Three consecutive convictions proved the
ability of the prosecuting attorney. The quiet passing of successive
summer days.
Its size was insignificant, even
contemptible. He won the prize by a contemptuous trick.
The investigator was surprised to find
the tradition of such long continuation. We waited impatiently for the
continuance of the story in the next issue.
I am more and more amazed at the perfection of
man's corporal frame. His corporeal vigor was unusual.
A man may correct many of his false judgments on
current affairs by studying history. The mistake is ours; it shall be
rectified.
The cozy fit of a garment. A snug place by the fire.
We crawled forward at dawn to surprise their
outposts. In his humility he fairly crept on the earth.
I do not doubt it; it is entirely credible.
The success of the antidote seemed scarcely creditable.
Though he is the official and credited
ambassador, his assertions are not accredited.
I cured the dog's wounds. The physician declared he
could heal leprosy.
"A custom more honor'd in the breach than the
observance." Is it your custom to watch the clock while you eat? The habit
in that region was to rise at cockcrow.
A decided battle. A decisive fault in manners.
We still await a definite edition of this
author's works. His answer was so definitive that we no longer doubted
what he meant.
Clive added India to the British demesne.
The king went riding through his personal domain.
The German mark has deprecated in value. He
depreciated the praise they were lavishing upon him.
They tied themselves together with a rope in
order to make their dissent safer. The dissent to a lower plane of
conversation was what he most desired.
The discovery of the wireless telegraph is
Marconi's chief claim to remembrance. The invention of a water passage
between Tierra del Fuego and the mainland was the work of Magellan.
He could not discriminate individuals at
that distance. Any man can distinguish right from wrong.
His course was entirely generous and
disinterested. Most visitors to art galleries have an uninterested manner.
This disposal of the matter is
authoritative, final. His disposition of his forces was well-considered.
Though the colonists were dissatisfied
for the moment, they could hardly be called discontented.
The distinct quality of his character was
aggressiveness. There were four separate and distinctive calls.
An affected, dramatic manner. A truly
theatrical situation.
A dry plain. An arid place to sleep in.
The man stood dumb with surprise. Always be kind to
mute animals.
Our joy is durable. Oak is a lasting wood.
3. Consult the dictionary for the distinction between the members
of each of the following pairs. Frame sentences to illustrate
the correct use of the words. (Some of the words in this list,
as well as some in other parts of the chapter, are considered in
larger groups in the chapters following.)
earth, world efficiency, efficacy
egoism, egotism eldest, oldest
elemental, elementary elude, evade
emigrate, immigrate enough, sufficient
envy, jealousy equable, equitable
equal, equivalent essential, necessary
esteem, respect euphemism, euphuism
evidence, proof exact, precise
exchange, interchange excuse, pardon
exempt, immune expect, suppose
expedite, facilitate
facsimile, copy familiar, intimate
fancy, imagination farther, further
feeling, sentiment feminine, effeminate
fervent, fervid fewer, less
fluid, liquid first (or last) two, two first (or last)
food, feed foreign, alien
force, strength forgive, pardon
gayety, cheerfulness genius, talent
gentle, tame genuine, authentic
glance, glimpse grateful, thankful
grieve, mourn
hanged, hung happen, transpire
happiness, pleasure healthy, healthful
hear, listen heathen, pagan
honorable, honorary horrible, horrid
human, humane
illegible, unreadable image, effigy
imaginary, imaginative impending, approaching
imperious, imperial imply, infer
in, into inability, disability
ingenious, ingenuous intelligent, intellectual
insinuation, innuendo instinct, intuition
involve, implicate irony, sarcasm
irretrievable, irreparable
judicious, judicial just, equitable
justify, warrant
lack, want languor, lassitude
later, latter lawful, legal
lax, slack leave, let
lend, loan liable, likely
libel, slander lie, lay
like, love linger, loiter
look, see loose, lose
luxurious, luxuriant
majority, plurality marine, maritime
martial, military moderate, temperate
mood, humor moral, ethical
moral, religious mutual, reciprocal
myth, legend
natal, native nautical, naval
near, close necessaries, necessities
needy, needful noted, notorious
novice, tyro
observance, observation observe, perceive
obsolete, archaic omnipresent, ubiquitous
on, upon oppose, resist
opposite, contrary oppress, depress
palliate, extenuate passionate, impassioned
pathos, pity patron, customer
peculiar, unusual perspicuity, perspicacity
permeate, pervade permit, allow
perseverance, persistence pertain, appertain
pictorial, picturesque pitiable, pitiful
pity, sympathy pleasant, pleasing
politician, statesman practicable, practical
precipitous, precipitate precision, preciseness
prejudice, bias prelude, overture
pride, vanity principal, principle
process, procedure procure, secure
professor, teacher progress, progression
propitious, auspicious proposal, proposition
tradition, legend truth, veracity
quiet, quiescent
raise, rear raise, rise
ransom, redeem rare, scarce
reason, understanding reasonable, rational
recollect, remember regal, royal
reliable, trustworthy requirement, requisite
restive, restless reverse, inverse
ride, drive rime (or rhyme), rhythm
sacred, holy salutation, salute
scanty, sparse scholar, student
science, art scrupulous, conscientious
serf, slave shift, expedient
sick, ill silent, taciturn
sit, set skilled, skilful
slender, slim smart, clever
sociable, social solicitude, anxiety
stay, stop stimulus, stimulation
strut, swagger suppress, repress
termination, terminus theory, hypothesis
tolerate, permit torment, torture
tradition, legend truth, veracity
unbelief, disbelief unique, unusual
varied, various variety, diversity
venal, venial vengeance, revenge
verse, stanza vindictive, revengeful
visit, visitation visitant, visitor
wander, stray warn, caution
will, volition wit, humor
witness, see womanish, womanlike
worth, value
Pairs of the third type are made up of words parallel in meaning. This
class somewhat overlaps the second; many terms that are frequently
confused are parallels, and parallelism is of course a cause of confusion.
Parallels are words that show likeness in meaning. Likeness, not sameness.
Yet at one time actual sameness may have existed, and in many instances
did. Nowadays this sameness has been lost, and the words have become
differentiated. As a rule they still are closely related in thought;
sometimes, however, the divergence between them is wide.
Why did words having the same meaning find lodgment in the language in the
first place? The law of linguistic economy forbids any such happening, and
only through sheer good fortune did English come to possess duplications.
The original Anglo-Saxon did not contain them. But the Roman Catholic
clergy brought to England the language of religion and of scholarship,
Latin. Later the Normans, whose speech as a branch of French was an
offshoot of Latin, came to the island as conquerors. For a time,
therefore, three languages existed side by side in the country--Anglo-
Saxon among the common folk, Latin among the clergy, and Norman-French at
the court and among the nobility. The coalescing of the three (or of the
two if we count Latin in its direct and indirect contributions as one) was
inevitable. But other (mostly cognate) languages also had a part in the
speech that was ultimately evolved. The Anglo-Saxon element was
augmented by words from Dutch, Scandinavian, and the Germanic tongues in
general; and Latin was reinforced by Greek. Thus to imply, as is
sometimes done, that modern English is simply a blend of Anglo-Saxon and
Latin elements is misleading. _Native_ and _classic_ are the better
terms to use, provided both are used broadly. _Native_ must include not
only Anglo-Saxon but the other Germanic elements as well, and _classic_
must include French and Greek as well as Latin.
The welding of these languages made available two--in some instances more
than two--words for a single object or idea. What became of these
duplicates? Sometimes one of the words was dropped as needless.
Oftentimes, however, both were retained--with such modifications in
meaning that thereafter they designated, not the same object or idea, but
different forms or aspects of it. Thus they became parallels, and the new
language waxed rich with discriminations which neither of the component
tongues had possessed.
Scott in _Ivanhoe_ gives the basis upon which the unification of the
languages proceeded. The jester Wamba in conversation with the swineherd
Gurth explains how the Anglo-Saxon term took on the homelier, rougher,
more workaday uses and left the more refined and fastidious uses for the
Norman-French. A domestic animal, says Wamba, was cared for by the
conquered people, and in consequence bore while living a "good Saxon"
name--swine, ox, or calf; but it was served at the tables of the
conquerors, and therefore when ready for consumption bore a "good
Norman-French" name--pork, beef, or veal. "When the brute [a sow] lives,
and is in charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes
Norman and is called pork, when she is carried into the castle hall to
feast among the nobles.... He [a calf] is Saxon when he requires tendance,
and takes a Norman name [Monsieur de Veau] when he becomes matter of
enjoyment."
Let us see how Scott's contention fares if we extend his list of terms
relative to animal life. As throughout the rest of this chapter, with the
single and necessary exception of List B, the first word in each pair is
native, the second classic:
sheep, mutton deer, venison horse, equine
cow, bovine bull, taurine sheep, ovine
wolf, lupine hog, porcine bear, ursine
fox, vulpine cat, feline dog, canine
fish, piscatorial mouse, vermin rat, rodent
mankind, humanity man, masculine woman, feminine
childish, infantile boyish, puerile
A glance at this list will show that, at least as regards animal life, the
native word is likely to be the more familiar and unpretentious. But we
must not leap to the conclusion that, taking the language as a whole, the
simple, easy word is sure to be native, the abstruse word classic. In the
following list one word in each pair is simpler, oftentimes much simpler,
than the other; yet both are of classic origin. (In some instances the two
are doublets; that is, they spring from the same stem.)
boil, effervesce plenty, abundance force, coerce
clear, transparent sound, reverberate echo, reverberate
toil, labor false, perfidious prove, verify
join, unite join, annex try, endeavor
carry, convey save, preserve save, rescue
safe, secure poor, pauper poor, penurious
poor, impecunious native, indigenous strange, extraneous
excuse, palliate excusable, venial cannon, ordnance
corpse, cadaverous parish, parochial fool, stultify
fool, idiot rule, govern governor, gubernatorial
wages, salary nice, exquisite haughty, arrogant
letter, epistle pursue, prosecute use, utility
use, utilize rival, competitor male, masculine
female, feminine beauty, esthetics beauty, pulchritude
beautify, embellish poison, venom vote, franchise
vote, suffrage taste, gust tasteful, gustatory
tasteless, insipid flower, floral count, compute
cowardly, pusillanimous tent, pavilion money, finance
monetary, pecuniary trace, vestige face, countenance
turn, revolve bottle, vial grease, lubricant
oily, unctuous revive, resuscitate faultless, impeccable
scourge, flagellate power, puissance barber, tonsorial
bishop, episcopal carry, portable fruitful, prolific
punish, punitive scar, cicatrix hostile, inimical
choice, option cry, vociferate ease, facility
peaceful, pacific beast, animal chasten, castigate
round, rotunda imprison, incarcerate bowels, viscera
boil, ebullient city, municipal color, chromatics
nervous, neurotic pleasing, delectable accidental, fortuitous
change, mutation lazy, indolent fragrance, aroma
pay, compensate face, physiognomy joy, rapture
charitable, eleemosynary blame, blaspheme priest, presbyter
coy, quiet prudent, provident pupil, disciple
story, narrative pause, interval despise, abhor
doctor, physician fate, destiny country, rustic
aged, senile increase, increment gentle, genteel
clear, apparent eagle, aquiline motion, momentum
nourishment, nutrition pure, unadulterated closeness, proximity
number, notation ancestors, progenitors confirm, corroborate
convert, proselyte benediction, benison treasury, thesaurus
egotism, megalomania
Sometimes the native word is less familiar than the classic:
seethe, boil loam, soil fare, travel
abide, remain bestow, present bestow, deposit
din, noise quern, mill learner, scholar
shamefaced, modest hue, color tarnish, stain
ween, expect leech, physician shield, protect
steadfast, firm withstand, resist straightway, immediately
dwelling, residence heft, gravity delve, excavate
forthright, direct tidings, report bower, chamber
rune, letter borough, city baleful, destructive
gainsay, contradict cleave, divide hearten, encourage
hoard, treasure
Again, the native word is sometimes less emphatic than the classic:
fly, soar old, venerable flood, cataclysm
steep, precipitous wonder, astonishment speed, velocity
sparkle, scintillate stir, commotion stir, agitate
strike, collide learned, erudite small, diminutive
scare, terrify burn, combustion fire, conflagration
fall, collapse uproot, eradicate skin, excoriate
hate, abominate work, labor bright, brilliant
hungry, famished eat, devour twisted, contorted
thin, emaciated sad, lugubrious mirth, hilarity
Despite these exceptions, the native word is in general better known
and more crudely powerful than the classic. Thus of the pair
_sweat-perspiration_, _sweat_ is the plain-spoken, everyday member,
_perspiration_ the polite, even learned member. The man of limited
vocabulary says _sweat_; even the sophisticated person, unless there
is occasion to soften effects, finds _sweat_ the more natural term.
No one would say that a horse perspires. No one would say that human
beings must eat their bread in the perspiration of their faces. But
_sweat_ is a word of connotation too vigorous (though honest withal)
for us to use the term in the drawing room. A questionable woman in _The
Vicar of Wakefield_ betrays her lack of breeding by the remark that she
is in a muck of sweat.
The native word, besides being in itself simpler and starker than the
classic, makes stronger appeal to our feelings and affections. In nearly
every instance the objects and relationships that have woven themselves
into the very texture of our lives are designated by native terms. Even if
they are not so designated solely, they are so designated in their more
cherished aspects. We warm more to the native _fatherly_ than to the
classic _paternal_. We have a deeper sentiment for the native
_home_ than for the classic _residence_.
That the native is the more downright term may be seen from the following
words. (These pairs are of course merely illustrative. With them might be
grouped a few special pairs, like _devilish-diabolical_ and
_church_-_ecclesiastical_, of which the first members are
classic in origin but of such early naturalization into English that they
may be regarded as native.)
belly, stomach belly, abdomen navel, umbilicus
suck, nurse naked, nude murder, homicide
dead, deceased dead, defunct dying, moribund
lust, salacity lewd, libidinous read, peruse
lie, prevaricate hearty, cordial following, subsequent
crowd, multitude chew, masticate food, pabulum
eat, regale meal, repast meal, refection
thrift, economy sleepy, soporific slumberous, somnolent
live, reside rot, putrefy swelling, protuberant
soak, saturate soak, absorb stinking, malodorous
spit, saliva spit, expectorate thievishness, kleptomania
belch, eructate sticky, adhesive house, domicile
eye, optic walker, pedestrian talkative, loquacious
talkative, garrulous wisdom, sapience bodily, corporeal
name, appellation finger, digit show, ostentation
nearness, propinquity wash, lave handwriting, chirography
waves, undulations shady, umbrageous fat, corpulent
muddy, turbid widow, relict horseback, equestrian
weight, avoirdupois blush, erubescence
The word of classic origin in many instances survives only or mainly in
the form of an adjective; as a noun (or other part of speech) it has
completely or largely disappeared. This fact may be observed in lists
already given, particularly List A. It may also be observed in the
following words:
moon, lunar star, stellar star, sidereal
sun, solar earth, terrestrial world, mundane
heaven, celestial hell, infernal earthquake, seismic
ear, aural head, capital hand, manual
foot, pedal breast, pectoral heart, cardial
hip, sciatic tail, caudal throat, guttural
lung, pulmonary bone, osseous hair, hirsute
tearful, lachrymose early, primitive sweet, dulcet,
sweet, saccharine young, juvenile bloody, sanguinary
deadly, mortal red, florid bank, riparian
hard, arduous wound, vulnerable written, graphic
spotless, immaculate sell, mercenary son, filial
salt, saline meal, farinaceous wood, ligneous
wood, sylvan cloud, nebulous glass, vitreous
milk, lacteal water, aquatic stone, lapidary
gold, aureous silver, argent iron, ferric
honey, mellifluous loving, amatory loving, erotic
loving, amiable wedded, hymeneal plow, arable
priestly, sacerdotal arrow, sagittal wholesome, salubrious
warlike, bellicose timely, temporary fiery, igneous
ring, annular soap, saponaceous nestling, nidulant
snore, stertorous window, fenestral twilight, crepuscular
soot, fuliginous hunter, venatorial
The fact that English is a double-barreled language, and that of parallel
terms one is likely to be native and the other classic, is interesting in
itself. Our lists of parallels, however, though (with the exception of
List B) they are arranged to bring out this duality of origin, have other
and more vital uses as material for exercises. For after all it matters
little whether we know where a word comes from, provided we know
thoroughly the meaning and implications of the word itself. The lists
already given and those to follow show the more important words actually
yoked as parallels. Your task must be to ascertain the differences in
import between the words thus joined.
EXERCISE - Parallels
Study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs. At
each blank in the illustrative sentences insert the appropriate word.
_Brotherly_ is used of actual blood
kinship, or indicates close feeling, deep affection, or religious love.
_Fraternal_ is used less personally and intimately; it normally
betokens that the relations are at least in part formal (as relations
within societies). "The sight of the button on the stranger's lapel caused
Wilkes to give him the cabalistic sign and ask his ____ assistance."
"Though the children of different parents, we bear for each other a true
____ devotion." "Because we both are newspaper men I feel a ____ interest
in him."
_Daily_, the popular word, is often used
loosely. We may say that we eat three meals daily without implying that we
have never gone dinnerless. _Diurnal_, the scientific term, is used
exactly, whether applying to the period of daylight or to the whole
twenty-four hours. A diurnal flower closes at night; a diurnal motion is
precisely coincident with the astronomical day. In poetry, however,
_diurnal_ is often used for _daily_. "Give us this day our ____
bread." "The ____ rotation of the earth on its axis is the cause of our
day and night." "Fred and I went for our ____ ramble through the hills."
Which is the more popular word? Let us see. Would the
man in the street be more likely to use one than the other? Which one?
Does this answer our question? Another question: Which word is the more
inclusive in meaning? Again, let us see. A blacksmith is beating iron;
does the iron grow cold or frigid? Which term, then, approaches the closer
in meaning to the idea of mere coolness? On the other hand, may that same
term represent a temperature far beyond mere coolness? Would you speak of
a morning as bitterly cold or bitterly frigid? Now think of the term you
have not been using. _Can_ it convey as wide meanings, or is it
limited in range? Does the word _frigid_ carry for you a geographical
suggestion (to the frigid zone)? Do you yourself use the term? If so, do
you use it chiefly (perhaps entirely) in connection with human temperament
or demeanor? Is _cold_ used thus figuratively also? Which is the more
often thus used? "I suffer from ____ hands and feet." "The slopes of Mont
Blanc are ____ with eternal snow." "He did not warm to the idea at all.
His inclinations are absolutely ____."
. _Manly_ implies possession of traits or
qualities a man should possess; it may be used of immature persons.
_Virile_ implies maturity and robust masculinity; it is also used of
the power to procreate. "A ____ lad." "A ____ reply." "____ energy."
"____ and aggressive." "____ forbearance."
. _Inner_ is somewhat within, or more within
than something else is; it is also used in figurative and spiritual
senses. _Internal_ is entirely within. "The ____ organs of the human
body." "The ____ layer of the rind." "The injury was ____."
"The ____ nature of man." "The ____ meaning of the occurrence."
. "He was five feet, eleven inches in height."
Can you substitute _altitude_? Is _altitude_ used of persons?
"At an altitude of eleven feet from the ground." Would _height_ be
more natural? Does _altitude_ betoken great height? If so, does
Hamlet speak jestingly when he greets the player, "Your ladyship is nearer
heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine?" What of
the sentence: "The altitude of Galveston was not sufficient to protect it
from the tidal wave"? Does the magnitude or importance of the object
(Galveston) compensate for its lack of elevation and thus justify
_altitude_? Could _height_ be substituted? If so, would the
words _above sea-level_ have to follow it? Does this fact give you a
further clue as to the distinction between the two words? You are
comparing the elevation of two peaks, both plainly visible; you measure
them merely by your eye. Do you say "This exceeds the other in height" or
"This exceeds the other in altitude"? Suppose the peaks are so distant
from each other that the two are not visible simultaneously, and suppose
you are speaking from a knowledge of the scientific measurements. Do you
say "This exceeds the other in height" or "This exceeds the other in
altitude"?
. _Talk_ may be one-sided and empty.
_Conversation_ requires that at least two shall participate, and it
is not spoken of as empty, though it may be trivial. "Our ____ was
somewhat desultory." "Thought is less general than ____."
"His ____ was so lively that I had no chance to interrupt"
"That is meaningless ____."
. All of us have heard physicians call
commonplace ailments by extraordinary names. When homesickness reaches the
stage where a physician is or might be called in, it becomes nostalgia.
The latter term suggests morbid or chronic suffering. A healthy boy away
from home for the first time is homesick. An exile who has wasted himself
with pining for his native land is nostalgic. "His ____ was more than
____; it had so preyed upon his thoughts that it had grown into ____."
Rise, ascend. _Rise_ is the more general term, but it expresses less
than _ascend_ in degree or stateliness. "He had foretold to them that
he would ____ into heaven." "Do not ____ from your seat." "The diver
slowly ____ to the surface." "The travelers ____ the mountain."
. _Sell_ is the more dignified word socially, but
may express greater moral degradation. _Vend_ is used of the petty
(as that which can be carried about in a wagon), and may suggest the
pettily dishonest. "That man would ____ his country." "We shall ____ a
million dollars' worth of goods." "The hucksters ____ their wares."
Study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs.
Determine whether the words are correctly used in the illustrative
sentences. (Some are; some are not.)
. _Friendly_ denotes goodwill positive in
quality though perhaps limited in degree; we may be friendly to friends,
enemies, or strangers. _Amicable_ is negative, denoting absence of
open discord: it is used of those persons between whom some connection
already exists. "The newcomer has an amicable manner." "Both sides were
cautious, but at last they reached a friendly settlement." "I have only
amicable feelings for an enemy who is thus merciful." "The two met, if not
in a friendly, at least in an amicable way."
. Both words imply an act of the will; but
_willing_ adds positive good-nature, desire, or enthusiasm, whereas
_voluntary_ conveys little or nothing of the emotional attitude.
_Voluntary_ is often thought of in contrast with _mechanical_.
"They made willing submission." "They rendered whole-hearted and voluntary
service." "Though torn by desire to return to his mother, he willingly
continued his journey away from her." "The sneeze was unwilling."
_Greedy_ denotes excessiveness (usually
habitual) of appetite or, in its figurative uses, of desire; it nearly
always carries the idea of selfishness. _Voracious_ denotes intense
hunger or the hasty and prolonged consumption of great quantities of food;
it may indicate, not habitual selfishness, but the stress of
circumstances. "Nobody else I know is so greedy as he." "The young poet
was voracious of praise." "Trench, though a capital fellow, was so hungry
that he ate voraciously."
_Offspring_ is likely to be used when our
thought is chiefly on the children, _progeny_ when our thought is
chiefly on the parents. _Offspring_ may be used of one or many;
_progeny_ is used in collective reference to many. "He was third
among the progeny who won distinction." "They are the progeny of very rich
parents." "Clayton left his offspring well provided for."
_Ghost_ is the narrower term. It never
expresses, as _spirit_ does, the idea of soul or of animating mood or
purpose. With reference to incorporeal beings, it denotes (except in the
phrase "the Holy Ghost") the reappearance of the dead in disembodied form.
_Spirit_ may denote a variety of incorporeal beings--among them
angels, fairies (devoid of moral nature), and personalities returned from
the grave and manifested--seldom visibly--through spiritualistic tappings
and the like. "The superstitious natives thought the spirit of their chief
walked in the graveyard." "The ghost of the ancestors survives in the
descendants." "I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
Nowadays the chief difference between the two terms is
that _foe_ is the more used in poetry, _enemy_ in prose.
But _foe_ tends to express the more personal and implacable
hostility. We do not think of foes as bearing any friendship for each
other; enemies may, or they may be enemies in public affairs but downright
friends in their private relations. A man is hardly spoken of as being his
own foe, but he may be his own enemy. "For the moment we found ourselves
foes." "Suspicion is an enemy to content." "I paid a tribute to my friend,
who was the dominant personality among the enemy."
_Truth_ has to do with the accuracy of the
statement, of the facts; _veracity_ with the intention of the person
to say nothing false. "I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, but I
can for the truth of the teller." "Though he is not a man of veracity, I
believe he is now speaking the truth." "Veracity, crushed to earth, will
rise again."
. _Break_ is the broader term. It need not
refer clearly to the operation or result of external force, nor need it
embody the idea that this force is brought against a hard substance. In
these respects it differs from _fracture_, as also in the fact that
it may designate a mere interruption. Furthermore it has figurative uses,
whereas _fracture_ is narrowly literal. "There was a fracture in the
chain of mountains." "The break in his voice was distinct." "The fracture
of the bones of his wrist incapacitated him." "The fracture of the rope."
. To _hug_ is to clasp violently or
enthusiastically, and perhaps ludicrously. To _embrace_ is to clasp
in a more dignified, perhaps even in a formal, way; the term also means to
include, to comprise. "This topic embraces the other." "Did you see that
ardent bumpkin embracing his sweetheart?" "Her sister gave her a graceful
but none too cordial hug." "The wounded bear hugged the hunter
ferociously."
. The two terms overlap; but there is a fairly
strong tendency to use _shorten_ for reduction in length, and
_abridge_ for reduction in quantity or mass. Both words are used
figuratively as well as literally. "The tyrant shortened the privileges of
his subjects." "We shortened the rope." "The teacher abridged the
recitation." "The report of the committee appears in abridged form in
Volume 2 of our records."
With the help of the dictionary discriminate between the members of the
following pairs. Determine whether the words are correctly used in the
illustrative sentences. (Some are; some are not.)
. "He delivered a fiery address." "The
underbrush was dry and fiery." "Your disposition is too inflammable."
. "The fat man had grown attenuated."
"Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look." "The hot metal was then drawn
into an attenuated wire." "Only a lean line of our soldiers faced the
dense masses of the enemy."
. "The scene was quiet and domestic." "It is
home-like, inexpressibly dear." "To Waltham, heartsick from his
wanderings, the room in all its arrangements was thoroughly domestic."
. "We must be vigilant if we would maintain our
liberty." "He was wakeful, even watchful, though not from set purpose."
"He was vigilant for evidences of friendship."
. "It is a big, barn-like building." "Spare yonder
sacred edifice." "This is the most imposing building I ever saw."
. "I poked a stick into the aperture which the
crawfish had made." "Through the aperture of the partly open door I gazed
out on the street." "The hole of the hornet's nest was black with the
emerging and angry insects."
. "Two hundred students graduated this year
from the college of farming." "For long years he had devoted himself to
the homely, grinding tasks of agriculture." "I have looked rather
carefully into the theories of farming."
. "He obtained some repose even while standing." "We
wished for a moment's rest from our exertions." "Worn out, he was
compelled to seek repose." "Lincoln's face in repose was very melancholy."
. "The man was so injured he could do nothing for himself;
I had to aid him." "Help, help!" "Aid us, O God, in our sore distress."
"The little fellow could not quite get the bundle to his shoulder; a
passerby helped him."
. "By refraining from comment he hid his connection
with the affair." "Wild creatures hide themselves by means of their
protective coloring." "The frost on the panes conceals the landscape from
you." "Do not hide your misdeeds from your mother."
In the following list only the native member of each pair is given.
Determine what the classic member is, and frame sentences to illustrate
the correct use of the two words. (Make a conscientious effort to find the
classic member by means of its parallelism with the native. If, and after,
you definitely fail in any instance to find it, obtain a clue to it
through study of the words in List G. Every pair in that list is clearly
suggestive of one or more pairs in this list.)
nightly,-- motherly,--
breadth,-- buy,--
hot,-- fall,--
thought,-- sleeplessness,--
fatherly,-- yearly,--
outer,-- depth,--
womanly,-- speech,--
Discriminate between the members of each of the following pairs, and frame
sentences to illustrate the correct use of the two words.
freedom, liberty well, cistern
freedom, independence give, donate
free, acquit happen, occur
door, portal lessen, abate
begin, commence lessen, diminish
behead, decapitate forefathers, ancestors
belief, credence friend, acquaintance
belief, credulity lead, conduct
swear, vow end, finish
curse, imprecate end, complete
curse, anathema end, terminate
die, expire warn, admonish
die, perish warn, caution
die, succumb rich, affluent
lively, vivacious wealthy, opulent
walk, ambulate help, assistance
leave, depart help, succor
leave, abandon answer, reply
go with, accompany find out, ascertain
go before, precede take, appropriate
hasten, accelerate shrewd, astute
quicken, accelerate breathe, respire
speed, celerity busy, industrious
hatred, animadversion growing, crescent
fearful, timorous grow, increase
Cover with a piece of paper the classic (right-hand) members of the
following pairs, and if possible ascertain what they are by studying the
native members. Frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of both
words in each pair.
neighborhood, vicinity hang, impend
hang, suspend rash, impetuous
flood, inundation drunk, intoxicated
harmful, injurious tool, instrument
mind, intellect mad, insane
birth, nativity sail, navigate
sailor, mariner ship, vessel
lying, mendacious upright, erect
early, premature upright, vertical
first, primary shake, vibrate
raise, elevate swing, oscillate
lift, elevate leaves, foliage
greet, salute beg, importune
choose, select beggar, mendicant
choose, elect smell, odor
same, identical sink, submerge
name, nominate dip, immerse
follow, pursue room, apartment
follow, succeed see, perceive
teach, instruct see, inspect
teach, inculcate sight, visibility
teacher, pedagogue sight, vision
tiresome, tedious sight, spectacle
empty, vacant glasses, spectacles
farewell, valediction
Cover with a piece of paper the native (left-hand) members of the
following pairs, and if possible ascertain what they are by studying the
classic members. Frame sentences to illustrate the correct use of both
words in each pair.
skin, cuticle thunder, fulminate
skin, integument sleep-walking, somnambulism
hide, epidermis bird, ornithology
fleshly, carnal bird, aviary
hearer, auditor bee, apiary
snake, serpent bending, flexible
heap, aggregation wrinkle, corrugation
laugh, cachinnation slow, dilatory
laughable, risible lime, calcimine
fear, trepidation coal, lignite
live, exist man, anthropology
bridal, nuptial winter, hibernate
wed, marry gap, hiatus
husband/wife, spouse right, ethical
shore, littoral showy, ostentatious
forswear, perjure spelling, orthography
steal, peculate time, chronology
steal, embezzle handbook, manual
lockjaw, tetanus hole, cavity
mistake, error dig, excavate
mistake, erratum boil, tumor
wink, nictation tickle, titillate
blessing, benediction dry, desiccated
wet, humid warm, tepid
flirt, coquet forgetfulness, oblivion
fiddle, violin sky, firmament
sky, empyrean flatter, compliment
flee, abscond flight, fugitive
forbid, prohibit hinder, impede
hold, contain
For each of the following pairs frame a sentence which shall contain one
of the members. Can the other member be substituted without affecting the
meaning of the sentence? Read the discrimination of _Height-altitude_
in EXERCISE - Parallels. Ask yourself similar questions to bring out the
distinction between the two words you are considering.
threat, menace call, summon
talk, commune cleanse, purify
short, terse short, concise
better, ameliorate lie, recline
new, novel straight, parallel
lawful, legitimate law, litigation
law, jurisprudence flash, coruscate
late, tardy watch, chronometer
foretell, prognosticate king, emperor
winding, sinuous hint, insinuate
burn, incinerate fire, incendiarism
bind, constrict crab, crustacean
fowls, poultry lean, incline
flat, level flat, vapid
sharpness, acerbity sharpness, acrimony
shepherd, pastor word, vocable
choke, suffocate stifle, suffocate
clothes, raiment witness, spectator
beat, pulsate mournful, melancholy
beginning, incipient drink, imbibe
light, illuminate hall, corridor
stair, escalator anger, indignation
fight, combat sleight-of-hand, prestidigitation
build, construct tree, arbor
ask, interrogate wench, virgin
frisk, caper fill, replenish
water, irrigate silly, foolish
coming, advent feeling, sentiment
old, antiquated forerunner, precursor
sew, embroider unload, exonerate
grave, sepulcher readable, legible
tell, narrate kiss, osculate
nose, proboscis striking, percussion
green, verdant stroke, concussion
grass, verdure bowman, archer
drive, propel greed, avarice
book, volume stingy, parsimonious
warrior, belligerent bath, ablution
owner, proprietor wrong, incorrect
bow, obeisance top, summit
kneel, genuflection food, nutrition
work, occupation seize, apprehend
shut, close field, agrarian
Turn back to Lists A, B, C, D, E, and F. Discriminate between the members
of each pair contained in these lists. Frame sentences to illustrate the
correct use of the words.
VII
SYNONYMS IN LARGER GROUPS (1)
In considering pairs we have, without using the word, been studying
synonyms. For most pairs are synonyms (or in some instances antonyms) that
hunt in couples. We must now deal with synonyms, and incidentally
antonyms, as they associate themselves in larger groups.
A vocabulary is impoverished. Why? Nine times in ten, because of a
disregard of synonyms. Listen to the talk of the average person. Whatever
is pleasing is _fine_ or _nice_ or _all to the good_;
whatever is displeasing is _bum_ or _awful_ or _a fright_.
Life is reflected, not as noble and complex, but as mean and meager. Out
of such stereotyped utterance only the general idea emerges. The precise
meaning is lazily or incompetently left to the hearer to imagine. The
precise meaning? There is none. A person who does not take the trouble to
speak clearly has not taken the trouble to think clearly.
But the master of synonyms expresses, instead of general, hazy,
commonplace conceptions, the subtlest shadings of thought and feeling. He
has so trained himself that he selects, it may be unconsciously, from a
throng of possible words. One word may be strong, another weak. One may be
broad, another narrow. One may present an alternative in meanings, another
permit no liberty of choice. One may be suggestive, another literal or
colorless. One may penetrate to the core of the idea, another strike only
in the environs. With these possibilities the master of synonyms reckons.
He must have the right word. He chooses it, not at haphazard, but in
conformity with a definite purpose.
For synonyms are not words that have the same meaning. They are words that
have similar meanings. They may be compared to circles that overlap but do
not coincide. Each embraces a common area, but each embraces also an area
peculiar to itself. Though many words cluster about a given idea, rarely
if ever are even two of these words entirely equivalent to each other. In
scope, in suggestion, in emotional nuance, in special usage, or what not,
is sure to lurk some denial of perfect correspondence. And of synonyms, so
of antonyms. Antonyms are words opposite in meaning; but the opposition,
for the same reasons as the likeness, is seldom or never absolute.
In your study of synonyms you will find most of the dictionaries
previously named of great help. You may also profitably consult the
following books of synonyms (heavy, scholastic works not suited for
ordinary use are omitted):
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 associated 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 illustrative 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 analyzed your working vocabulary for its general limits
and shortcomings, so should you analyze 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 constitute 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 constitute 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 classes you have done something to
stamp them upon your memory as associates. 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 illustration will
make this clear.
We are aware that the world is made up of various classes 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 classes, 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 passes, 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
classifies schoolboys as bright boys, dullards, workers, shirkers,
teachers' favorites, scapegoats, athletes, note-throwers, truant-players,
and the like. And of these classes 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
associations mingled with marked kinships. 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 relationships, 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, illustrative 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 illustrative 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 scraping 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 fashion. 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.)
_Assignment 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 cock ____ 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 amusement. Our word now is _titters_. Suppose we laugh
low or gently or to ourselves. We _chuckle_. Suppose some one laughs
loudly, boisterously, even coarsely, 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_.
_Assignment for further discrimination_: .
_Second assignment_: Name all the words you can that designate
inaudible laughter (for example, ).
_Sentences_: The rough fellow ____ in the lecturer's face. "If you
prick 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 smutted 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
glasses began to slip from his nose. The girl kept ____ in a way that
embarrassed 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
encompassing 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 sex 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_.
_Assignment 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 circumstances
or shirking 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
association or attachment.
_Sentences_: The sailor ____ his ship. 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 ship.
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.
To _disgrace_ is to bring actual shame upon.
_Sentences_: They ____ the guilty officer from captain to lieutenant.
A man should ____ himself before God. He had so ____ himself that I no
longer expected good of him. His detection at cheating had ____ him before
the students. By successive overlords they had been ____ into a condition
of serfdom. The aristocratic old lady was ____ by her loss of social
position. The conversion of so much bullion into money had ____ the
coinage.
An interesting thing about the _answer_ group is that the generic
term has a somewhat strong rival in _reply_, itself fairly inclusive.
We must therefore discriminate rather fully between _answer_ and
_reply_. The former is a return in words to a question, a
communication, or an argument. The latter suggests a more or less formal
answer, as one carefully prepared or intelligently thought out. We might
give an _answer_ offhand, but are less likely to give a _reply_
so. We may give any kind of _answer_ to a question, but if we give a
_reply_, the implication is that we have answered it definitely,
perhaps satisfactorily. On the other hand, in controversial matters we
may, though we by no means always do, imply a more conclusive meeting of
objections through _answer_ than through _reply_. A
_response_ is an expected answer, one in harmony with the question or
assertion, or in some way carrying the thought farther. A _rejoinder_
is a quick reply to something controversial or calling forth opposition.
A _retort_ is a short, sharp reply, such as turns back censure or
derision, or as springs from anger. A _repartee_ is an immediate and
witty reply, perhaps to a remark of similar character which it is intended
to surpass in cleverness.
_Sentences_: The detailed ____ to our letter should reach us within a
week. The plays of Oscar Wilde abound in brilliant ____. The speaker's
____ to the heckler was incisive and scathing. My ____ to that third
question in the examination in history was incorrect. The congregation
read the ____ in unison. You have enumerated objections to my course; here
is their ____. "This is no ____, thou unfeeling man, to excuse the current
of thy cruelty." There was silence throughout the chamber as the old
statesman rose to make his ____. To the tenderfoot's remark the guide
mumbled an indifferent ____. Our appeal for the sufferers elicited but a
poor ____.
From the general tree of asking grow many branches, different in size, in
the direction they take, in the shades of meaning they cast. What can we
learn from a rapid scrutiny of each? That to _inquire_ is to ask for
specific information. That to _question_ is to keep asking in order
to obtain detailed or reluctantly given information. That to
_interrogate_ is to question formally, systematically, or thoroughly.
That to _interpellate_ is to question as of unchallenged right, as in
a deliberative body. That to _query_ is to bring a thing into
question because of doubt as to its correctness or truth. That to
_quiz_ is to question closely and persistently, as from
meddlesomeness, opposition, or curiosity. That to _catechize_ is to
question in a minute, perhaps impertinent, manner in order to ascertain
one's secrets or the amount of his knowledge or information. That to
_request_ is to ask formally and politely. That to _beg_ is to
ask for deferentially or humbly, especially on the ground of pity. That to
_solicit_ is to ask with urgency. That to _entreat_ is to ask
with strong desire and moving appeal. That to _beseech_ is to ask
earnestly as a boon or favor. That to _crave_ is to ask humbly and
abjectly, as though unworthy of receiving. That to _implore_ is to
ask with fervor and intense earnestness. That to _supplicate_ is to
ask with urgent or even desperate appeal. (Both _implore_ and
_supplicate_ imply humility, as of a prayer to a superior being.)
That to _importune_ is to ask for persistently, even wearyingly. That
to _petition_ is to ask a superior, usually in writing, for some
favor, grant, or right.
_Assignment for further discrimination_: .
_Sentences_: The leader of the minority ____ the upholders of the
measure sharply as to a secret understanding. I ____ you to keep your
promise. I shall ____ that solution for the present. The colonists ____
Great Britain for a redress of grievances. She ____ the governor to grant
her husband a pardon. A child is naturally inquisitive and ____ many
questions. I ____ you to show mercy. On bended knees he ____ God's
forgiveness. "I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet And ____ in every
street." The policeman ____ the suspect closely. The prosecuting attorney
____ the witness. We are ____ funds to aid the famine-stricken people of
India. He ____ me about your health. You should ____ at the office about
the lost package. She ____ your presence at the party. Every one resents
being ____. I ____ you to care for the child after I am gone. A fool
can ____ questions a wise man can't answer. She annoyed them by constantly
____ them for favors. The reporter ____ into the causes of the riot. "____
and it shall be given you." I ____ your pardon, though I well know I do
not deserve it. The man ____ me to give him some money for food.
If you consume or injure something by bringing it in contact with fire or
heat, you _burn_ it. If you do not consume it but burn it
superficially so as to change the texture or color of its surface, you
_scorch_ it. If you burn off ends or projections of it, you
_singe_ it. If you burn its surface to dryness or hardness, you
_sear_ it. If you dry or shrivel it with heat, you _parch_ it.
If through heat you reduce it to a state of charcoal, or cinders, you
_char_ it. If you burn it to ashes, you _incinerate_ it. (This
word is learned and but little used in ordinary discourse.) If you burn a
dead body to ashes, you _cremate_ it. If you burn or sear anything
with a hot iron or a corrosive substance, you _cauterize_ it.
_Sentences_: The hired girl ____ the cloth in ironing it. By getting
too close to the fire he ____ the nap of his flannels. The doctor at once
____ the wound. The cook had picked the chicken and now ____ its down over
the coals. I used to ____ grains of field corn on the cookstove, while my
mother prepared dinner. Shelley's body was ____ on a funeral pyre. The
lecturer spoke of the time when the whole earth might be ____. The earth
was ____ and all growing things were ____ by the intense summer heat.
From much of the talk that we hear nowadays it might be supposed that the
earnest devotion of one's self to a task is a thing that has disappeared
from the earth. But a good many people are exhibiting this very devotion.
Let us see in what different degrees. The man who actively applies himself
to something, whether temporarily or habitually, is _busy_. The man
who makes continued application to work a principle or habit of life, is
_industrious_. The man who applies himself aggressively to the
accomplishment of some specific undertaking or pursuit, is
_diligent_. The man who quietly and determinedly sticks to a task
until it is accomplished, no matter what its difficulties or length, is
_assiduous_. The man who makes steady and painstaking application to
whatever he is about, is _sedulous_.
_Sentences_: Early in life he acquired ____ habits. By patient and
____ study you may overcome those defects of your early education. "How
doth the ____ little bee improve each shining hour." The manager gave such
____ attention to details that he made few mistakes. He is ____ at
present. Oh, yes, he is always ____. "Nowher so ____ a man has he ther
has, And yet he seemed ____ than he was."
Words descriptive of brief utterance are, in nearly every instance, in
their origin figurative. The brevity is brought out by comparison with
something that is noticeably short or small. Let us examine the words of
our list for their figurative qualities. A _concise_ statement is one
that is _cut down_ until a great deal is said in a few words. A
_terse_ statement is _rubbed off_, rid of unessentials.
A _succinct_ statement has its important thoughts _bound_ into
small compass, as by a girdle. A _compendious_ statement _weighs
together_ the various thoughts and aspects of a subject; it shows by
means of a few effective words just what these amount to, gives a summary
of them. A _compact_ statement has its units of thought _fastened
together_ into firmness of structure; its brevity is well-knit. A
_sententious_ statement gives _feelings_ or _opinions_ in a
strikingly pointed or axiomatic way, so that they can be easily grasped
and remembered; if _sententious_ is unfavorably used, the statement
may be filled with paraded platitudes. A _pithy_ statement gives the
very _pith_, the heart of a matter; it is sometimes slightly quaint,
always effective and arresting. A _laconic_ statement is made in the
manner of _the Spartans_, who hated talk and used as few words as
possible. A _curt_ statement is _made short_; its abruptness is
oftentimes more or less rude.
_Sentences_: "A tale should be judicious, clear, ____, the language
plain, and incidents well link'd." "Charles Lamb made the most ____
criticism of Spenser when he called him the poet's poet." With a ____,
disdainful answer she turned away. The sermon was filled with ____
sayings. By omitting all irrelevant details, he made his statement of the
case ____. It requires great skill to give a ____ statement of what such a
treatise contains. A proverb is a ____ statement of a truth.
Men are as mindful of rank and pretension in their terms for the cessation
of life as in their choice of tombstones for the departed. _Death_ is
the great, democratic, unspoilable word. It is not too good for a clown or
too poor for an emperor. _Decease_ is a more formal word. Its
employment is often legal--the death proves to be of sufficient importance
for the law (and the lawyers) to take notice. _Demise_, however, is
outwardly the most resplendent term of all. It implies that the victim cut
a wide swath even in death. It is used of an illustrious person, as a
king, who transmits his title to an heir. Ordinary people cannot afford a
_demise_. If the term is applied to their shuffling off of this
mortal coil, the use is euphemistic and likely to be stilted.
_Sentences_: "The crown at the moment of ____ must descend to the
next heir." "____ is a fearful thing." "In their ____ they were not
divided." At the ____ of his father he inherited the estate. "Each shall
take His chamber in the silent halls of ____." "Many a time I have been
half in love with easeful ____."
_Early_ is the simple word for that which was in, or toward, the
beginning. That is _primitive_ which has the old-fashioned or simple
qualities characteristic of the beginning. That is _primeval_ which
is of the first or earliest ages. That is _primordial_ which is first
in origin, formation, or development. That is _primal_ which is first
or original. (The word is poetic.) That is _pristine_ which has not
been corrupted from its original state.
_Assignment for further discrimination_:
_Sentences_: It was a hardy mountain folk that preserved the ____
virtues. The ____ history of mankind is shrouded in uncertainty. "This is
the forest ____." "It hath the ____ eldest curse upon 't, A brother's
murder." "A ____ leaf is that which is immediately developed from the
cotyledon." As the explorers penetrated farther into the country, they
beheld all the ____ beauties of nature. Some countries still use the ____
method of plowing with a stick.
We hear some one say that he reads faces. How? Through long study of them
and what they indicate. The human race as a whole has been reading faces
through the centuries. It has felt such need to label certain recurring
aspects of them that it has invented the designating terms. Of these terms
the simple, inclusive one is of course _face_ itself. If, however, we
are thinking of the face as its look or expression reveals thoughts,
emotions, or state of mind, our term is _countenance_. If we are
thinking of it as distinguished or individualized by the contour, lines,
etc., we speak of the _features_. If we are thinking of its external
appearance or aspect, we call it the _visage_. If, finally, we are
thinking of it as indicative of mind, disposition, or fundamental
character, we say _physiognomy._
_Assignment for further discrimination_: .
_Sentences_: His grotesque ____ reminded one of a gargoyle. It is
said that the ____ of persons living constantly together tend to become
alike. "Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling ____." The teacher
told the students to wash their ____ every morning. "A ____ more in sorrow
than in anger." The firm but kind ____ of the old statesman shone happily
at this ovation. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then ____ to
____." She turned an eager ____ up to me as she spoke. One's ____ is
moulded by one's thoughts. Cosmetics injure the ____. His clear-cut ____
impressed his employer.
_Financial_ is usually applied to money matters of considerable size
or moment. _Monetary_ applies to money, coin, or currency as such.
_Pecuniary_ refers to practical matters in which money is involved,
though not usually in large amounts. _Fiscal_ refers especially to
the time when money, receipts, and accounts are balanced or reckoned.
_Sentences_: A ____ reward has been offered. We gave the unfortunate
man ____ assistance. The ____ system of the country was sound. It was
Hamilton who more than any one else shaped the ____ policies of the new
government. Experts audit the company's accounts at the end of the ____
year. The ____ interests of the country were behind the bill.
To _flee_ is to run away from what one would avoid, as danger,
arrest, or the like. To _abscond_ is to steal off secretly and hide
one's self, as from some disgraceful reason or to avoid arrest. To
_decamp_ is to leave suddenly in great haste to get away; the word is
often used humorously.
_Sentences_: They went to have their money refunded, but the swindler
had ____. The bank teller ____ after having squandered most of the
deposits. Yes, we were in proximity to a polecat, and without further
parley we ____. "Resist the devil, and he will ____ from you." William
Wallace, when pursued by the English, ____ into the Highlands.
_Foretell_ is the general word for stating or perceiving beforehand
that which will happen. _Predict_ implies foretelling based on
well-founded or precise knowledge. _Prophesy_ often implies
supernatural inspiration to foretell correctly. The word is especially so
used in connection with the Scriptures; but in the Scriptures themselves
it frequently expresses insight and admonition without the element of
foretelling. _Forecast_ involves a marked degree of conjecture.
_Presage_ usually means to give as a presentiment or warning.
_Forebode_ expresses an uncertain foreknowledge of vague impending
evil. _Portend_ indicates the likelihood that something will befall
which is threatening or evil in its consequences. _Augur_ means
foretelling from omens. _Prognosticate_ means foretelling through the
study of signs or symptoms.
_Sentences_: "For we know in part, and we ____ in part." (Insert
in the blank, successively, the terms just distinguished. In each instance
how is the meaning affected? Do any of the terms fail to make sense at
all? Which term do you think the right one? Bearing in mind the
distinctions we have made, frame sentences of your own to embody the
terms.)
_Get_, the general term, may be used of whatever one comes by
whatsoever means to possess, experience, or realize. To _acquire_ is
to get into more or less permanent possession, either by some gradual
process or by one's determined efforts. To _obtain_ is to get
something desired by means of deliberate effort or request. To
_procure_ is to get by definitely planned effort something which, in
most instances, is of a temporary nature or the possession of which is
temporary. To _attain_ is to get through striving that which one has
set as a goal or end of his desire or ambition. To _gain_ is to get
that which is advantageous. To _win_ is to get as the result of
successful competition or the overcoming of opposition. To _earn_ is
to get as a deserved reward for one's efforts or exertions.
_Sentences_: With such wages as those, he can barely ____ a living.
He ____ a pardon by appealing to the governor. The speaker ____ his point
by forcing his opponent to admit that the figures were misleading. By
buying in June I can ____ a good overcoat at half price. Did you ____ only
seven thousand dollars for your house? Walpole believed in ____ one's
ends in the surest and easiest way possible. It is illegal to ____ money
through false pretences. A junior ____ the prize in the oratorical
contest. Kirk ____ his advancement by taking a personal interest in the
firm's welfare. The painter ____ a foreign accent while he was studying in
Paris. He ____ their gratitude by loyally serving them. It was through
sacrifices that he ____ an education.
.
We _give_ that which we transfer from our own to another's possession
or ownership, usually without compensation. We _bestow_ that which we
give gratuitously, or of which the recipient stands in especial need. We
_grant_ that which has been requested by one dependent upon us or
inferior to us, and which we give with some formality. From a position of
superiority we _confer_ as a favor or honor that which we might
withhold or deny. We _present_ that which is of importance or value
and which we give ceremoniously.
_Assignment for further discrimination_: .
_Sentences_: William the Conqueror ____ English estates upon his
followers. The rich man ____ his wonderful art collection to the museum.
My application for a leave of absence has been ____. The ticket agent ____
us complete information. Every year he ____ alms upon the poor in that
neighborhood. The school board may ____ an increase in the salaries of
teachers. Many merchants ____ premiums with the articles they sell. The
college ____ an honorary degree upon the distinguished visitor. The
Pilgrims ____ thanks to God for their preservation. "Not what we ____, but
what we share."
.
What did John Wesley mean by saying, "Though I am always in _haste_,
I am never in a _hurry_"? Does Lord Chesterfield's saying "Whoever is
in a _hurry_ shows that the thing he is about is too big for him"
help explain the distinction? Explain the distinction (taking _speed_
in the modern sense) in the saying "The more _haste_, ever the worse
_speed_." "The tidings were borne with the usual _celerity_ of
evil news." Give the well-known saying in four simple words that express
the same idea. Which of the two statements is the more forceful? Which is
the more literary? Why did Prescott use the former in his _Ferdinand and
Isabella_? "_Despatch_," says Lord Chesterfield, "is the soul of
business." What does _despatch_ suggest about getting work done that
_haste_ or _speed_ does not? In which way would you prefer for
your employee to go about his task--with _haste_, with _speed_,
or with _despatch_? "With wingéd _expedition_, Swift as the
lightning glance, he executes His errand on the wicked." Why is it that
this use of _expedition_ in Milton's lines is apt? Would
_despatch_ have served as well? If not, why not?
.
To _hate_ involves deep or passionate dislike, sometimes bred of
ill-will. To _detest_ involves an intense, vehement, or deep-seated
antipathy. To _abhor_ involves utter repugnance or aversion, with an
impulse to recoil. To _loathe_ involves disgust because of physical
or moral offensiveness. To _abominate_ involves strong moral
aversion, as of that which is odious or wicked. To _despise_ is to
dislike and look down upon as inferior.
_Sentences_: When he had explained his fell purpose, I could only
____ him. Who would not ____ a slimy creature like Uriah Heep? It is
natural for us to ____ our enemies. She ____ greasy food. There suddenly
in my pathway was the venomous reptile, darting out its tongue; oh, I ____
snakes! A wholesome nature must ____ such principles as these. A child
____ to kiss and make up. The pampered young millionaire ____ those who
are simply honest and kind. These daily practices of her associates she
____.
.
(With this group contrast the _Disease_ group below.)
The words of this group are assuredly blessed. Every one of them has to do
with the giving, promotion, or preservation of health. But health is of
various kinds, and therefore the words apply differently. _Healthful_
is the most inclusive of them; it means that the thing it refers to is
full of health for us. _Wholesome_ also is a very broad term; what is
wholesome is good for us physically, mentally, or morally. _Salutary_
is confined to that which affects for good our moral (including civic and
social) welfare, especially if it counteracts evil influences or
propensities. _Salubrious_ is confined to the physical; it is used
almost solely of healthful air or climate. _Sanitary_ and
_hygienic_ apply to physical well-being as promoted by the
eradication of the causes for sickness, disease, or the like;
_sanitary_, however, is used of measures and conditions affecting
people in general, whereas _hygienic_ connects itself with personal
habits.
_Assignment for further discrimination_: The word _healthy_ is
often confused with _healthful_. You have already discriminated
between these two terms, but you should renew your knowledge of the
distinction between them.
_Sentences_: Colorado is noted for its ____ air. He offered the young
people some ____ advice. A person should brush his teeth every day for
____ reasons. In spite of its horrors, the French Revolution has had a
____ effect upon civilization. Damp, low places do not have a ____
climate. Cities in the middle ages were not ____. His is a very ____ way
of life. My doctor recommends buttermilk as ____.
.
He knew that it was a ____ responsibility. (Insert the four words in the
blank space in turn, and analyze the differences in meaning thus
produced.)
.
He made a ____ donation to the endowment fund. (Insert the four words in
the blank space in turn, and analyze the differences in meaning.)
.
"A man's a man for a' that," sang the poet. So he is, but not all the
adjectives allusive to his state are equally complimentary.
_Masculine_ betokens the qualities and characteristics belonging to
men. _Male_ designates sex and is used of animals as well as human
beings. _Manly_ (used of boys as well as men) implies the possession
of qualities worthy of a man, as strength, courage, sincerity, honesty,
independence, or even tenderness. _Manlike_ refers to qualities,
attributes, or foibles characteristically masculine. _Manful_
suggests the valor, prowess, or resolution properly belonging to men.
_Mannish_ (a derogatory word) indicates superficial or affected
qualities of manhood, especially when inappropriately possessed by a
woman. _Virile_ applies to the sturdy and intrepid qualities of
mature manhood.
_Sentences_: The Chinese especially prize ____ children. He was a
____ little fellow. She walked with a ____ stride. With ____ courage he
faced the crisis. It was a ____ defense of an unpopular cause. ____
strength is the complement of female grace. The old sailor still retained
the rugged and ____ strength of a man much younger. With ____ bluntness
he told her what he thought. Such gentleness is not weak; it is ____. He
made a ____ struggle against odds. "His ____ brow Consents to death, but
conquers agony." Now isn't that assumption of omniscience ____?
