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Pleasant keeps always something of the sense of actually giving pleasure, and thus surpasses the meaning of
good-natured; there are good-natured people who by reason of rudeness and ill-breeding are not pleasant
companions. A pleasing face has good features, complexion, expression, etc.; a pleasant face indicates a kind
heart and an obliging disposition, as well as kindly feelings in actual exercise; we can say of one usually
good-natured, "on that occasion he did not meet me with a pleasant face." Pleasant, in the sense of gay,
merry, jocose (the sense still retained in pleasantry), is now rare, and would not be understood outside of
literary circles. Compare AMIABLE; COMFORTABLE; DELIGHTFUL.
Antonyms:
arrogant, displeasing, glum, ill-humored, repelling, austere, dreary, grim, ill-natured, repulsive, crabbed,
forbidding, harsh, offensive, unkind, disagreeable, gloomy, hateful, repellent, unpleasant.
Prepositions:
Pleasant to, with, or toward persons, about a matter.
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PLENTIFUL.
Synonyms:
abounding, bountiful, generous, plenteous, abundant, complete, large, profuse, adequate, copious, lavish,
replete, affluent, enough, liberal, rich, ample, exuberant, luxuriant, sufficient, bounteous, full, overflowing,
teeming.
Enough is relative, denoting a supply equal to a given demand. A temperature of 70° Fahrenheit is enough for
a living-room; of 212° enough to boil water; neither is enough to melt iron. Sufficient, from the Latin, is an
equivalent of the Saxon enough, with no perceptible difference of meaning, but only of usage, enough being
the more blunt, homely, and forcible word, while sufficient is in many cases the more elegant or polite.
Sufficient usually precedes its noun; enough usually and preferably follows. That is ample which gives a safe,
but not a large, margin beyond a given demand; that is abundant, affluent, bountiful, liberal, plentiful, which
is largely in excess of manifest need. Plentiful is used of supplies, as of food, water, etc.; as, "a plentiful rain,"
Ps. lxviii, 9. We may also say a copious rain; but copious can be applied to thought, language, etc., where
plentiful can not well be used. Affluent and liberal both apply to riches, resources; liberal, with especial
reference to giving or expending. (Compare synonyms for ADEQUATE.) Affluent, referring especially to
riches, may be used of thought, feeling, etc. Neither affluent, copious, nor plentiful can be used of time or
space; a field is sometimes called plentiful, not with reference to its extent, but to its productiveness. Complete
expresses not excess or overplus, and yet not mere sufficiency, but harmony, proportion, fitness to a design, or
ideal. Ample and abundant may be applied to any subject. We have time enough, means that we can reach our
destination without haste, but also without delay; if we have ample time, we may move leisurely, and note
what is by the way; if we have abundant time, we may pause to converse with a friend, to view the scenery, or
to rest when weary. Lavish and profuse imply a decided excess, oftenest in the ill sense. We rejoice in
abundant resources, and honor generous hospitality; lavish or profuse expenditure suggests extravagance and
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
223
wastefulness. Luxuriant is used especially of that which is abundant in growth; as, a luxuriant crop.
Antonyms:
deficient, inadequate, narrow, scanty, small, drained, insufficient, niggardly, scarce, sparing, exhausted, mean,
poor, scrimped, stingy, impoverished, miserly, scant, short, straitened.
Preposition:
Plentiful in resources.
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POETRY.
Synonyms:
meter, numbers, poesy, song, metrical composition, poem, rime, verse.
Poetry is that form of literature that embodies beautiful thought, feeling, or action in melodious, rhythmical,
and (usually) metrical language, in imaginative and artistic constructions. Poetry in a very wide sense may be
anything that pleasingly addresses the imagination; as, the poetry of motion. In ordinary usage, poetry is both
imaginative and metrical. There may be poetry without rime, but hardly without meter, or what in some
languages takes its place, as the Hebrew parallelism; but poetry involves, besides the artistic form, the
exercise of the fancy or imagination in a way always beautiful, often lofty or even sublime. Failing this, there
may be verse, rime, and meter, but not poetry. There is much in literature that is beautiful and sublime in
thought and artistic in construction, which is yet not poetry, because quite devoid of the element of song,
whereby poetry differs from the most lofty, beautiful, or impassioned prose. Compare METER.
Antonyms:
prosaic speech, prosaic writing, prose.
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POLITE.
Synonyms:
accomplished, courtly, genteel, urbane, civil, cultivated, gracious, well-behaved, complaisant, cultured,
obliging, well-bred, courteous, elegant, polished, well-mannered.
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