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OATH.
Synonyms:
adjuration, curse, profane swearing, affidavit, cursing, profanity, anathema, denunciation, reprobation, ban,
execration, swearing, blaspheming, imprecation, sworn statement.
blasphemy, malediction, vow.
In the highest sense, as in a court of justice, "an
oath is a reverent appeal to God in corroboration of what one
says," ABBOTT
Law Dict.; an
affidavit is a
sworn statement made in writing in the presence of a competent
officer; an
adjuration is a solemn appeal to a person in the name of God to speak the truth. An
oath is made to
man in the name of God; a
vow, to God without the intervention, often without the knowledge, of man. In the
lower sense, an
oath may be mere
blasphemy or
profane swearing.
Anathema,
curse,
execration, and
imprecation are modes of invoking vengeance or retribution from a superhuman power upon the person
against whom they are uttered.
Anathema is a solemn ecclesiastical condemnation
of a person or of a
proposition.
Curse may be just and authoritative; as, the
curse of God; or, it may be wanton and powerless:
"so the
curse causeless shall not come,"
Prov. xxvi, 2.
Execration expresses most of personal bitterness and
hatred;
imprecation refers especially to the coming of the desired evil upon the person against whom it is
uttered.
Malediction is a general wish of evil, a less usual but very expressive word. Compare TESTIMONY.
Antonyms:
benediction, benison, blessing.
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OBSCURE.
Synonyms:
abstruse, darksome, dusky, involved, ambiguous, deep, enigmatical, muddy, cloudy, dense, hidden,
mysterious, complex, difficult, incomprehensible, profound, complicated, dim,
indistinct, turbid, dark,
doubtful, intricate, unintelligible.
That is
obscure which the eye or the mind can not clearly discern or see through, whether because of its own
want of transparency, its depth or intricacy, or because of mere defect of light. That which is
complicated is
likely to be
obscure, but that may be
obscure which is not at all
complicated and scarcely
complex, as a
muddy
pool. In that which is
abstruse (L.
abs, from, and
trudo, push) as if removed from the usual course of thought
or out of the way of apprehension or discovery, the thought is remote,
hidden; in that which is
obscure there
may
be nothing to hide; it is hard to see to the bottom of the
profound, because of its depth, but the most
shallow turbidness is
obscure. Compare COMPLEX; DARK; DIFFICULT; MYSTERIOUS.
Antonyms:
See synonyms for CLEAR.
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OBSOLETE.
Synonyms:
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
207
ancient, archaic, obsolescent, out of date, antiquated, disused, old, rare.
Some of the
oldest or most
ancient words are not
obsolete, as father, mother, etc. A word is
obsolete which
has quite
gone out of reputable use; a word is
archaic which is falling out of reputable use, or, on the other
hand, having been
obsolete, is taken up tentatively by writers or speakers of influence, so that it may perhaps
regain its position as a living word; a word is
rare if there are few present instances of its reputable use.
Compare OLD.
Antonyms:
See synonyms for NEW.
* * * * *
OBSTINATE.
Synonyms:
contumacious, headstrong, mulish, resolute, decided, heady, obdurate, resolved, determined,
immovable,
opinionated, stubborn, dogged, indomitable, persistent, unconquerable, firm, inflexible, pertinacious,
unflinching, fixed, intractable, refractory, unyielding.
The
headstrong person is not to be stopped in his own course of action, while the
obstinate and
stubborn is
not to be driven to another's way. The
headstrong act; the
obstinate and
stubborn may simply refuse to stir.
The most amiable person may be
obstinate on some one point; the
stubborn person is for the most part
habitually so;
we speak of obstinate determination,
stubborn resistance.
Stubborn is the term most frequently
applied to the lower animals and inanimate things.
Refractory implies more activity of resistance; the
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