such effect; the unconscious
posture of a spectator or listener may be an admirable
pose from an artist's
standpoint.
* * * * *
ATTRIBUTE,
v.
Synonyms:
ascribe, associate, connect, impute, refer. assign, charge,
We may
attribute to a person either that which belongs to him or that which we merely suppose to be his. We
attribute to God infinite power. We may
attribute a wrong intent to an innocent person. We may
attribute a
result, rightly or wrongly, to a certain cause; in such case, however,
attribute carries
always a concession of
uncertainty or possible error. Where we are quite sure, we simply
refer a matter to the cause or class to which
it belongs or
ascribe to one what is surely his, etc. Many diseases formerly
attributed to witchcraft are now
referred to the action of micro-organisms. We may
attribute a matter in silent thought; we
ascribe anything
openly
in speech or writing; King Saul said of the singing women, "They have
ascribed unto David ten
thousands, and to me they have
ascribed but thousands." We
associate things which may have no necessary or
causal relation; as, we may
associate the striking of a clock with the serving of dinner, tho the two are not
necessarily connected. We
charge a person with what we deem blameworthy. We may
impute good or evil,
but more commonly evil.
Antonyms:
deny, disconnect,
dissociate, separate, sever, sunder.
Prepositions:
It is uncharitable to attribute evil motives
to (archaic
unto) others.
* * * * *
ATTRIBUTE,
n.
Synonyms:
property, quality.
A
quality (L.
qualis, such)--the "suchness" of anything, according to the German idiom--denotes what a thing
really is in some one respect; an
attribute is what we conceive a thing to be in some one respect; thus, while
attribute may,
quality must, express something of the real nature of that to which it is ascribed; we speak of
the
attributes of God, the
qualities of matter. "Originally 'the
attributes of God'
was preferred, probably,
because men assumed no knowledge of the actual
qualities of the Deity, but only of those more or less fitly
attributed to him." J. A. H. MURRAY. [M.] Holiness is an
attribute of God; the
attributes of many heathen
deities have been only the
qualities of wicked men joined to superhuman power. A
property (L.
proprius,
one's own) is what belongs especially to one thing as its own peculiar possession, in
distinction from all other
things; when we speak of the
qualities or the
properties of matter,
quality is the more general,
property the
more limited term. A
quality is inherent; a
property may be transient; physicists now, however, prefer to term
those
qualities manifested by all bodies (such as impenetrability, extension, etc.),
general properties of
matter, while those peculiar to certain substances or to certain states of those substances (as fluidity,
malleability, etc.) are termed
specific properties; in this wider use of the word
property, it becomes strictly
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
59
synonymous with
quality. Compare CHARACTERISTIC; EMBLEM.
Antonyms:
being, essence, nature, substance.
* * * * *
AUGUR.
Synonyms:
betoken, divine, foretell, predict, prognosticate, bode, forebode, portend, presage, prophesy.
"Persons
or things augur; persons only
forebode or
presage; things only
betoken or
portend." CRABB
English
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