English Synonyms and Antonyms

PART I. SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS AND PREPOSITIONS 1
PART II. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 377
INDEX 509
PREFACE.
The English language is peculiarly rich in synonyms, as, with such a history, it could not fail to be. From the
time of Julius Cæsar, Britons, Romans, Northmen, Saxons, Danes, and Normans fighting, fortifying, and
settling upon the soil of England, with Scotch and Irish contending for mastery or existence across the
mountain border and the Channel, and all fenced in together by the sea, could not but influence each other's
speech. English merchants, sailors, soldiers, and travelers, trading, warring, and exploring in every clime, of
necessity brought back new terms of sea and shore, of shop and camp and battlefield. English scholars have
studied Greek and Latin for a thousand years, and the languages of the Continent and of the Orient in more
recent times. English churchmen have introduced words from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, through Bible and
prayer-book, sermon and tract. From all this it results that there is scarcely a language ever spoken among
men that has not some representative in English speech. The spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race, masterful in
language as in war and commerce, has subjugated all these various elements to one idiom, making not a
patchwork, but a composite language. Anglo-Saxon thrift, finding often several words that originally
expressed the same idea, has detailed them to different parts of the common territory or to different service, so
that we have an almost unexampled variety of words, kindred in meaning but distinct in usage, for expressing
almost every shade of human thought.
Scarcely any two of such words, commonly known as synonyms, are identical at once in signification and in
use. They have certain common ground within which they are interchangeable; but outside of that each has its
own special province, within which any other word comes as an intruder. From these two qualities arises the
great value of synonyms as contributing to beauty and effectiveness of expression. As interchangeable, they
make possible that freedom and variety by which the diction of an accomplished writer or speaker differs
from the wooden uniformity of a legal document. As distinct and specific, they enable a master of style to
choose in every instance the one term that is the most perfect mirror of his thought. To write or speak to the
best purpose, one should know in the first place all the words from which he may choose, and then the exact
reason why in any case any particular word should be chosen. To give such knowledge in these two directions
is the office of a book of synonyms.
Of Milton's diction Macaulay writes:
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
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"His poetry acts like an incantation. Its merit lies less in its obvious meaning than in its occult power. There
would seem, at first sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. But they are words of enchantment.
No sooner are they pronounced, than the past is present and the distant near. New forms of beauty start at once
into existence, and all the burial places of the memory give up their dead. Change the structure of the
sentence; substitute one synonym for another, and the whole effect is destroyed. The spell loses its power; and
he who should then hope to conjure with it would find himself as much mistaken as Cassim in the Arabian
tale, when he stood crying, 'Open Wheat,' 'Open Barley,' to the door which obeyed no sound but 'Open
Sesame.' The miserable failure of Dryden in his attempt to translate into his own diction some parts of the
'Paradise Lost' is a remarkable instance of this."
Macaulay's own writings abound in examples of that exquisite precision in the choice of words, which never
seems to be precise, but has all the aspect of absolute freedom. Through his language his thought bursts upon
the mind as a landscape is seen instantly, perfectly, and beautifully from a mountain height. A little vagueness
of thought, a slight infelicity in the choice of words would be like a cloud upon the mountain, obscuring the
scene with a damp and chilling mist. Let anyone try the experiment with a poem like Gray's "Elegy," or
Goldsmith's "Traveller" or "Deserted Village," of substituting other words for those the poet has chosen, and
he will readily perceive how much of the charm of the lines depends upon their fine exactitude of expression.
In our own day, when so many are eager to write, and confident that they can write, and when the press is
sending forth by the ton that which is called literature, but which somehow lacks the imprint of immortality, it
is of the first importance to revive the study of synonyms as a distinct branch of rhetorical culture. Prevalent
errors need at times to be noted and corrected, but the teaching of pure English speech is the best defense
against all that is inferior, unsuitable, or repulsive. The most effective condemnation of an objectionable word
or phrase is that it is not found in scholarly works, and a student who has once learned the rich stores of
vigorous, beautiful, exact, and expressive words that make up our noble language, is by that very fact put
beyond the reach of all temptation to linguistic corruption.
Special instruction in the use of synonyms is necessary, for the reason that few students possess the analytical
power and habit of mind required to hold a succession of separate definitions in thought at once, compare
them with each other, and determine just where and how they part company; and the persons least able to do
this are the very ones most in need of the information. The distinctions between words similar in meaning are
often so fine and elusive as to tax the ingenuity of the accomplished scholar; yet when clearly apprehended
they are as important for the purposes of language as the minute differences between similar substances are
for the purposes of chemistry. Often definition itself is best secured by the comparison of kindred terms and
the pointing out where each differs from the other. We perceive more clearly and remember better what each
word is, by perceiving where each divides from another of kindred meaning; just as we see and remember
better the situation and contour of adjacent countries, by considering them as boundaries of each other, rather
than by an exact statement of the latitude and longitude of each as a separate portion of the earth's surface.
The great mass of untrained speakers and writers need to be reminded, in the first place, that there are