Chapter 2 of 3 · 46971 words · ~235 min read

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 <Tain> 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.)

<Ag, act, ig> (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, brun, brand> (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.

<Cad, cas, cid> (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.

<Cede, ceed, cess> (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 ____.

<Ceive, ceit, cept, cip, cap(t)> (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.

<Cide, cis(e)> (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.

<Cur, course> (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 ____.

<Dic, dict> (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.

<Duce, duct> (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.

<Error> (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!

<Fact, fic(e), fy, fect, feat, feit> (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.

<Fer> (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 ____.

<Fide> (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 ____.

<Grade, gress> (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 ____.

<Hab, hib> (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 ____.

<Hale, heal, hol, whole> (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 ____.

<It> (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.

<Ject> (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.

<Jud, jur, just> (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 ____.

<Junct> (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.

<Jure> (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 ____.

<Leg, lig, lect> (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.

<Lig> (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.

<Luc, lum, lus> (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.

<Mand> (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.

<Mit, mis, mise> (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, mote, mob> (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.

<Pass, path> (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 ____.

<Ped, pod> (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 ____.

<Pell, pulse> (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.

<Pend, pense, pond> (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.

<Pet> (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.

<Ply, plic, plicate> (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.

<Pose, pone> (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.

<Prise, prehend> (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 ____.

<Prob> (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.

<Rupt> (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.

<Sed, sid(e), sess> (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.

<Sequ, secu, sue> (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.

<Shear, share, shore> (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> (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.

<Solve, solu> (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 ____.

<Spec(t), spic(e)</b/> (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.

<Spire, spirit> (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 ____.

<Sta, sti(t), sist> (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.

<Stead> (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 ____.

<Strict, string, strain> (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.

<Tact, tang, tain, ting, teg> (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 ____.

<Tail> (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.

<Tain> (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.

<Term, termin> (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.

<Tort> (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.

<Tract, tra(i)> (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.

<Vene, vent> (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.

<Vert, vers(e)> (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.

<Vince, vict> (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.

<Voc, voke> (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 ____.

<Volve, volute> (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

<Greek Ancestors of English Words> (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

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.

<Ability, capacity.> ____ to receive knowledge. ____ to impart knowledge.

<Abstain, refrain.> He ____ from laughter. He steadfastly ____ from evil courses.

<Abstinence, temperance.> Though he always displayed ____, he did not carry it to the point of ____.

<Accept, except.> I shall ____ most of the suggestions, but must ____ the one made by Mr. Wheeler.

<Accept, receive>. When the package was ____ at the local post office, Bayard refused to ____ it.

<Ache, pain>. 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."

<Address, tact>. With firmness and ____ he set about reconciling the factions. Her ____ enabled her to perceive that something was amiss.

<Adhere, cohere>. The magnetized iron filings ____. The cold iron ____ to the boy's tongue.

<Adherence, adhesion>. The ____ of the heated particles to each other was instantaneous. Amid these trials their ____ to the cause was unshaken.

<Admission, admittance>. His ____ to the room was forced. He obtained ____ into a fraternal order.

<Admit, confess>. When he ____ that he had a weapon, he practically ____ that he had slain the man.

<Adverse, averse>. He was ____ to going. Their answer was ____.

<Advice, counsel>. In this emergency he sought ____. He asked my ____ as to the best place to hang the picture.

<Aggravate, irritate>. To let these mishaps ____ you is to ____ your suffering.

<Allusion, illusion>. It is an ____ to suppose that I made any ____ to you.

<Allusion, reference>. It was more than a possible ____; it was an unmistakable ____.

<Amateur, novice>. Though we call him a(n) ____, he is in skill by no means the ____ you might think him.

<Ambiguous, equivocal>. You are unintentionally ____. These words are deliberately ____.

<Anticipate, expect>. Since we ____ the enemy to advance, would it not be wise to ____ him?

<Appearance, aspect>. He was handsome in ____. The ____ of the sky was ominous.

<Apprehend, comprehend>. "Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that ____ More than cool reason ever ____."

<Ardor, fervor>. The ____ of the worshipers. The ____ of the soldiers.

<Artist, artisan>. The ____ who was decorating the walls called to an ____ who was mixing mortar.

<Ascent, ascension>. We easily made the ____ of the slope, and from the summit witnessed the balloon ____.

<Ascent, assent.> He gave his ____ when I proposed that we wait for the others to complete the ____ to this point.

<Ascribe, impute.> I ____ it to you as a fault rather than ____ it to you as an honor.

<Assembly, assemblage.> It was an informal ____. The ____ considered the matters it had been called to discuss.

<Assent, consent.> When told that the measure would advance his interests, he ____; but he would not ____ to it.

<Avenge, revenge.> The injury was slight, but he ____ it with unsparing malice. "____, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints."

<Avocation, vocation.> The lawyer, besides his regular ____, had the collecting of birds' eggs as his ____.

<Aware, conscious.> Though not ____ of the seriousness of his malady, he was ____ of the pain it caused him.

<Balance, remainder.> Darrell added the ____ of the coins, but not even they brought about the ____ he sought between assets and obligations.

<Bashful, modest.> Though ____ socially, he was not what you would term a ____ man.

<Behavior, conduct.> His ____ in this time of trial was exemplary. She praised the ____ of the children at the party.

<Belief, faith.> He possibly had ____, but not an active ____.

<Benignant, benign.> Her social manner was ____. The ____ influence of sunlight.

<Beside, besides.> ____ his personal friends, many people he had not even met stood ____ his sickbed.

<Blanch, whiten.> At this threat the face of the heroine ____. With a pail of cheap paint he ____ the dingy wall.

<Blessing, benediction.> After telling his parishioners to be mindful of their ____, the clergyman pronounced the ____.

<Blockade, siege.> Daily attacks on exposed redoubts marked the progress of the ____. The fleet lay there in silent ____ of the port.

<Bravery, bravado.> The incident proved that his ____ was not founded in real ____.

<Bring, fetch.> When you come, ____ the official documents with you. ____ me the scales you will find in the granary yonder.

<Broad, wide.> A man with ____ shoulders stood in the ____, open doorway.

<Bury, inter.> 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, may.> Can I stay at home this afternoon, papa? Because of the floods, the train beyond doubt may not get through.

<Character, reputation.> His character among them was very good. A man's reputation can never be taken from him.

<Childish, childlike.> Your conduct is peevish; it is childishly so. Her innocence was childlike.

<Cite, quote.> 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.

<Claim, assert.> He claimed that Jefferson was our third President. He asserted that bears sleep through the winter.

<Clothing, costume.> 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, ease.> Comfort after labor. The ease of owning a home.

<Commercial, mercantile.> Petty commercial transactions. A mercantile treaty.

<Common, mutual.> This pavilion was the common play-house for the children of the neighborhood. Ward and Aker held this property as their mutual possession.

<Complement, compliment.> This addition is the complement of our quota. He paid his dancing partner a compliment.

<Complement, supplement.> His downrightness is the complement of his uprightness. As a supplement to his wages he received an occasional bonus.

<Complete, finish.> He put in the completing touches. He had finished the task.

<Composure, equanimity.> His composure was not to be shaken. After this inner tumult came equanimity.

<Comprehensible, comprehensive.> Numbers of such magnitude are scarcely comprehensible. That men by the million should die for a cause is a thing not really comprehensive.

<Compulsion, obligation.> 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.

<Congratulate, felicitate.> I congratulated my friend on his appointment to the commission. I also felicitated the stranger on his appointment.

<Consecutive, successive.> Three consecutive convictions proved the ability of the prosecuting attorney. The quiet passing of successive summer days.

<Contemptible, contemptuous.> Its size was insignificant, even contemptible. He won the prize by a contemptuous trick.

<Continuation, continuance.> 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.

<Corporal, corporeal.> I am more and more amazed at the perfection of man's corporal frame. His corporeal vigor was unusual.

<Correct, rectify.> A man may correct many of his false judgments on current affairs by studying history. The mistake is ours; it shall be rectified.

<Cozy, snug.> The cozy fit of a garment. A snug place by the fire.

<Crawl, creep.> We crawled forward at dawn to surprise their outposts. In his humility he fairly crept on the earth.

<Credible, creditable.> I do not doubt it; it is entirely credible. The success of the antidote seemed scarcely creditable.

<Credit, accredit.> Though he is the official and credited ambassador, his assertions are not accredited.

<Cure, heal.> I cured the dog's wounds. The physician declared he could heal leprosy.

<Custom, habit.> "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.

<Decided, decisive.> A decided battle. A decisive fault in manners.

<Definite, definitive.> We still await a definite edition of this author's works. His answer was so definitive that we no longer doubted what he meant.

<Demesne, domain.> Clive added India to the British demesne. The king went riding through his personal domain.

<Deprecate, depreciate.> The German mark has deprecated in value. He depreciated the praise they were lavishing upon him.

<Descent, dissent.> 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.

<Discovery, invention.> 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.

<Discriminate, distinguish.> He could not discriminate individuals at that distance. Any man can distinguish right from wrong.

<Disinterested, uninterested.> His course was entirely generous and disinterested. Most visitors to art galleries have an uninterested manner.

<Disposal, disposition.> This disposal of the matter is authoritative, final. His disposition of his forces was well-considered.

<Dissatisfied, discontented.> Though the colonists were dissatisfied for the moment, they could hardly be called discontented.

<Distinct, distinctive.> The distinct quality of his character was aggressiveness. There were four separate and distinctive calls.

<Dramatic, theatrical.> An affected, dramatic manner. A truly theatrical situation.

<Dry, arid.> A dry plain. An arid place to sleep in.

<Dumb, mute.> The man stood dumb with surprise. Always be kind to mute animals.

<Durable, lasting.> 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, fraternal.> _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, diurnal.> _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."

<Cold, frigid.> 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, virile>. _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, internal>. _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."

<Height, altitude>. "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, conversation>. _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 ____."

<Homesickness, nostalgia>. 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, vend>. _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, amicable>. _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."

<Willing, voluntary>. 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, voracious.> _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, progeny.> _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, spirit.> _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."

<Foe, enemy.> 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, veracity.> _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, fracture>. _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."

<Hug, embrace>. 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."

<Shorten, abridge>. 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.)

<Fiery, inflammable>. "He delivered a fiery address." "The underbrush was dry and fiery." "Your disposition is too inflammable."

<Lean, attenuated>. "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."

<Home-like, domestic>. "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."

<Vigilant, watchful>. "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."

<Building, edifice>. "It is a big, barn-like building." "Spare yonder sacred edifice." "This is the most imposing building I ever saw."

<Hole, aperture>. "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."

<Farming, agriculture>. "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."

<Rest, repose>. "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."

<Help, aid>. "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."

<Hide, conceal>. "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.)

<Walk, plod, trudge, tread, stride, stalk, strut, tramp, march, pace, toddle, waddle, shuffle, mince, stroll, saunter, ramble, meander, promenade, prowl, hobble, limp, perambulate.>

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_: <sneak, shamble, amble, wander, stamp, slouch, gad, gallivant, glide, hike>.

_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.

<Laugh, giggle, snicker, titter, chuckle, guffaw, cachinnate.>

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_: <chortle, roar>.

_Second assignment_: Name all the words you can that designate inaudible laughter (for example, <smile, smirk, grin>).

_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.

<Look, glance, gaze, stare, peer, scan, scrutinize, gloat, glare, glower, lower, peek, peep, gape, con, pore, ogle.>

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_: <leer, view, survey, inspect, regard, watch, contemplate>.

_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, desert, forsake.>

_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.

<Abase, debase, degrade, humble, humiliate, disgrace.>

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.

<Answer, reply, response, rejoinder, retort, repartee.>

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 ____.

<Ask, inquire, question, interrogate, interpellate, query, quiz, catechize, request, beg, solicit, entreat, beseech, crave, implore, supplicate, importune, petition.>

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_: <plead, pray>.

_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.

<Burn, scorch, singe, sear, parch, char, incinerate, cremate, cauterize.>

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.

<Busy, industrious, diligent, assiduous, sedulous.>

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."

<Concise, terse, succinct, compendious, compact, sententious, pithy, laconic, curt.>

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.

<Death, decease, demise.>

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, primitive, primeval, primordial, primal, pristine.>

_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_: <aboriginal, prehistoric.>

_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.

<Face, countenance, features, visage, physiognomy.>

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_: <lineaments>.

_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, monetary, pecuniary, fiscal.>

_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.

<Flee, abscond, decamp.>

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, predict, prophesy, forecast, presage, forebode, portend, augur, prognosticate.>

_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, acquire, obtain, procure, attain, gain, win, earn.>

_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.

<Give, bestow, grant, confer, present>.

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_: <furnish, supply, impart>.

_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."

<Haste, celerity, speed, hurry, expedition, despatch>.

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?

<Hate, detest, abhor, loathe, abominate, despise>.

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 ____.

<Healthful, wholesome, salutary, salubrious, sanitary, hygienic>. (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 ____.

<Heavy, weighty, burdensome, onerous>.

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.)

<Liberal, generous, bountiful, munificent>.

He made a ____ donation to the endowment fund. (Insert the four words in the blank space in turn, and analyze the differences in meaning.)

<Masculine, male, manly, manlike, manful, mannish, virile>.

"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 ____?

<Name, appellation, designation, denomination, title, alias>.

A _name_ is the word or words by which a person or thing is called or known. If the name be descriptive or characterizing, even though in a fanciful way, it is an _appellation_. If it particularizes an individual through reference to distinctive quality or nature, perhaps without employing any word the individual is usually known by, it is a _designation_. If it specifies a class, especially a religious sect or a kind of coin, it is a _denomination_. If it is an official or honorary description of rank, office, place within a profession, or the like, it is a _title_. If it is assumed, as to conceal identity, it is an _alias_.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <cognomen, patronymic, nom de plume, pseudonym>.

_Sentences_: Yes, it is a five-dollar gold piece, though one doesn't often see a coin of that ____ nowadays. The Little Corporal is the ____ applied to Napoleon by his soldiers. The eldest son of the king of England bears the ____ of the Prince of Wales. The government issues stamps in various ____. "That loafer" was his contemptuous ____ of the man who could not find work. "Duke" is the highest ____ of nobility in England. The crook was known to the police under many ____. At the battle of Bull Run Jackson received the ____ "Stonewall." "What's in a[n] ____? that which we call a rose By any other ____ would smell as sweet." The head of the American government bears the ____ of President. The Mist of Spring was the little Indian maiden's ____. His ____ was Thornberg.

<Old, ancient, olden, antique, antiquated, archaic, obsolete, venerable, immemorial, elderly, aged, hoary, decrepit, senile, superannuated>.

We reserve the right to judge for ourselves when told that something-- especially a joke--is "the very latest." So may we likewise discriminate among degrees of age. _Old_ is applied to a person or thing that has existed for a long time or that existed in the distant past. The word may suggest a familiarity or sentiment not found in _ancient_, which is used of that which lived or happened in the remote past, or has come down from it. _Olden_ applies almost wholly to time long past. _Antique_ is the term for that which has come down from ancient times or is made in imitation of the style of ancient times, whereas _antiquated_ is the term for that which has gone out of style or fashion. _Archaic_ and _obsolete_ refer to words, customs, or the like, the former to such as savor of an earlier period though they are not yet completely out of use, the latter to such as have passed out of use altogether. _Immemorial_ implies that a thing is so old that it is beyond the time of memory or record. _Elderly_ is applied to persons who are between middle age and old age. _Aged_ is used of one who has lived for an unusually long time. _Hoary_ refers to age as revealed by white hair. _Venerable_ suggests the reverence to be paid to the dignity, goodness, or wisdom of old age. _Decrepit_ conveys a sense of the physical infirmities and weakness which attend old age; _senile_ of the lessening powers of both body and mind that result from old age. _Superannuated_ is applied to a person who on account of old age has been declared incapable of continuing his activities.

_Sentences_: He liked to read romances of the ____ days. Dana records that he once saw a man so ____ that he had to raise his eyelids with his fingers. Many writers use ____ words to give quaintness to their work. He liked to sit around in his ____ clothes. "The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ____ solitary reign." Some of these ____ sequoia trees were old before the white man discovered this continent. They are building the church in the ____ Roman style of architecture. "Be not ... the last to lay the ____ aside." Many of Chaucer's words, being ____, cannot possibly be understood without a glossary. Most churches now have funds for ____ ministers. A man is as ____ as he feels; a woman is as ____ as she looks. The ____ old man could scarcely hobble across the room. What better proof that he is ____ do you ask than that he babbles constantly about what happened when he was young? "I am a very foolish fond ____ man, Fourscore and upward." They revered the ____ locks of the old hero. At sixty a man is considered a[n] ____ person. That the earth is flat is a[n] ____ idea. The young warriors listened respectfully to the ____ chief's advice. They unearthed a[n] ____ vase. "____ wood best to burn, ____ wine to drink, ____ friends to trust, and ____ authors to read." His favorite study was ____ history. "Grow ____ along with me." "The most ____ heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong."

<Pay, compensate, recompense, remunerate, requite, reimburse, indemnify>.

Most men are willing to receive what is due them. They might even be persuaded to receive a bit more. Why should they not be as scrupulous to receive what they are entitled to in the medium of language as of money? Sometimes they are. Offering to _pay_ some people instead of to _compensate_ them is like offering a tip to the wrong person. Why? Because there is a social implication in _compensate_ which is not contained in _pay_. To _pay_ is simply to give what is due, as in wages (or even salary), price, or the like. To _compensate_ is to make suitable return for service rendered. Does _compensate_ not sound the more soothing? But save in exceptional circumstances the downrightness of _pay_ has no hint of vulgarity. To _recompense_ is to make a return, especially if it is not monetary, for work, pains, trouble, losses, or suffering; or some quality or blessing (as affection or happiness) may be said to recompense one. To _remunerate_ is to disburse a large amount to a person, or to give it to him as a reward, or otherwise to make him a return in a matter of importance. To _requite_ is to put a just value upon one's work, deeds, or merit and to make payment strictly in accordance with his deserts. To _reimburse_ is to make good what some one has spent for you. To _indemnify_ is to secure some one against loss or to make restitution for damages he has sustained.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <disburse, reward>.

_Sentences_: Let us ____ him for his efforts in our behalf. Let us ____ their kindness with kindness, their cruelty with cruelty. To ____ them adequately for such patriotic sacrifices is of course impossible. The government demanded that it be ____ for the injury to its citizens. I shall ____ you for all sums expended. He ____ the bill by a check. The success of her children ____ a mother for her sacrifices for them. Wages are ____ to laborers; salaries are ____ to judges.

<Proud, arrogant, presumptuous, haughty, supercilious, insolent, insulting>.

Most persons feel in their hearts that their claims and merits are superior to those of other people. But they do not like for you, in describing them, to imply that their self-appraisal is too high. "Comparisons are odious," and therefore in comparing their fancied with their real selves you must choose your terms carefully. Of the words that suggest an exaggerated estimate of one's merits or privileges the broadest, as well as the least offensive, is _proud_. In fact this word need not carry the idea of exaggeration. A proud man may but hold himself in justifiable esteem, or wish to measure up to the demands of his station or to the expectations of others. On the other hand, he may overvalue his attainments, possessions, connections, etc. To say that the man is _arrogant_ means that he combines with pride a contempt for others, that he claims for himself greater attention, consideration, or respect than he is entitled to. To say that he is _presumptuous_ makes him an inferior (or at least not a superior) who claims privileges or takes liberties improperly. To say that he is _haughty_ means that he assumes a disdainful superiority to others, especially through fancied or actual advantage over them in birth or social position. To say that he is _supercilious_ means that he maintains toward others an attitude of lofty indifference or sneering contempt. To say that he is _insolent_ means that he is purposely and perhaps coarsely disrespectful toward others, especially toward his superiors. To say that he is _insulting_ means that he gives or offers personal affront, probably in scornful or disdainful speech.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <scornful, imperious, contumelious, impudent, impertinent>.

_Sentences_: He was ____ in replying to the questions. She paid no attention to his words, but kept looking at him with a[n] ____ smile. He was ____ in acting as if he were their equal. The hot-tempered fellow answered this ____ remark with a blow. She resented his presuming to speak to her, and turned away in a[n] ____ manner. The servant was ____ to her mistress. Are you not very ____ of your family connections? The old man was so ____ that he expected people to raise their hats to him and not to sit down till he gave permission.

<Punish, chastise, chasten>.

To _punish_ a person is to inflict pain or penalty upon him as a retribution for wrong-doing. There may be, usually is, no intention to improve the offender. To _chastise_ him is to inflict deserved corporal punishment upon him for corrective purposes. To _chasten_ him is to afflict him with trouble for his reformation or spiritual betterment. The word is normally employed in connection with such affliction from God.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <castigate, scourge>.

_Sentences_: "Hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity, Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power To ____ and subdue." Ichabod Crane freely used his ferule in ____ his pupils. "Whom the Lord loveth he ____." A naughty child should be ____.

<Rich, wealthy, affluent, opulent>.

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Substitute _wealthy_ for _rich_. Is the meaning exactly the same? Is Goldsmith's description of the village preacher--"passing rich with forty pounds a year"--as effective if _wealthy_ is substituted? What is the difference between _riches_ and _wealth_? Which implies the greater degree of possession, which the more permanence and stability? Which word suggests the more personal relationship with money? Which word the more definitely denotes money or its immediate equivalent? Why do we say "get-rich-quick schemes" rather than "get-wealthy-quick schemes"? What besides the possession of wealth does _affluent_ suggest? Could we say that a rich miser lives in affluence? If not, why not? A poor clerk who has ten dollars to spend as he pleases may feel affluent. A rich banker may be a man of affluence in his town. What power does this suggest that he has besides the possession of a great deal of money? Explain all that Swift implies by the word _opulence_ in the quotation "There in full opulence a banker dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt." If you substitute _affluence_, what different impression do you get?

<Rural, rustic, pastoral, bucolic>.

"The _rural_ inhabitants of a country." Are the people being spoken of favorably, unfavorably, or neutrally? How would the meaning be affected if they were called _rustic_ inhabitants? Would you ordinarily speak of the _rural_ or the _rustic_ population to distinguish it from the urban? Would you speak of _rural_ or _rustic_ activities? _rural_ or _rustic_ manners? When the two adjectives may be employed, is one of them unflattering? Is a _rustic_ bridge something to be ashamed of? a _rustic_ chair? a _rustic_ gate? What, then, is the degree of reproach that attaches to each of the two adjectives? the degree of commendation? Wherein do _pastoral_ scenes differ from _rural_? _pastoral_ amusements from _rustic_? Can you trace a connection between the _pastor_ of a church and a _pastoral_ life? Do you often hear the word _bucolic_? In what mood is it oftenest uttered? Which of the four adjectives best fits into Goldsmith's dignified lament: "And ____ mirth and manners are no more"?

<Silent, reserved, uncommunicative, reticent, taciturn>. (This group may be contrasted with the _Talkative_ group, below.)

We pass through a crowded room and notice that some of its occupants are not adding their voices to the chatter. We resolve to study these unspeaking persons. Some of them merely have nothing to say, or are timid or preoccupied; or it may be they deliberately have set themselves not to talk. These are _silent_. Some plainly desire not to talk, it may be in general or it may be upon some particular topic; they may (but need not) regard themselves as superior to their associates, or for some other reason let aloofness or coldness creep into their manner. These are _reserved_. Others withhold information that persons about them are, or would be, interested in. These are _uncommunicative_. Others maintain their own counsel; they neglect opportunities to reveal their thoughts, plans, and the like. These are _reticent_. Others are disinclined--and habitually, we perceive--to talking. These are _taciturn_.

_Sentences_: The ____ prisoner evaded all questions. He was as ____ as nature itself; he never gave his views upon any subject. He was ____ about the firm's affairs, especially toward persons who seemed inquisitive. We knew there had been a love affair in his life, but he was ____ on the subject. She sat ____ throughout the discussion. If to be ____ is golden, Lucas should have been a billionaire.

<Sing, chant, carol, warble, troll, yodel, croon, hum, chirp, chirrup>.

You hear a "concord of sweet sounds," not instrumental but vocal, and wish to tell me so. You say that some person _sings_. Then you recall that I am something of an expert in music, and you cast about for the word that shall state specifically the kind of singing that is being done. Does the person sing solemnly in a more or less uniform tone? You tell me that he _chants_. Does he sing gladly, spontaneously, high-spiritedly, as if his heart were pouring over with joy? You say that he _carols_. Does he sing with vibratory notes and little runs, as in bird-music? You say that he _warbles_. Does he sing loudly and freely? You say that he _trolls_. Does he sing with peculiar modulations from the regular into a falsetto voice? You say that he _yodels_. Does he sing a simple, perhaps tender, song in a low tone (as a lullaby to an infant)? You say that he _croons_. Does he sing with his lips closed? You say that he _hums_. Does he utter the short, perhaps sharp, notes of certain birds and insects? You say that he _chirps_ or _chirrups_.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <trill, pipe, quaver, peep, cheep, twitter>.

_Sentences_: A cricket ____ in the grass outside the door. He abstractedly gazed out of the window and ____ a few strains of an old song. Listen, they are ____ the Te Deum. "And ____ still dost soar, and soaring ever ____." A strange, uncanny blending of false and true notes it is when the Swiss mountaineers are ____. Negroes, as a race, love to ____. As she soothes the child to sleep she ____ a "rock-a-bye-baby."

<Suave, bland, unctuous, fulsome, smug>.

_Suave_ implies agreeable persuasiveness or smooth urbanity. _Bland_ suggests a soothing or coaxing kindness of manner, one that is sometimes lacking in sincerity. _Unctuous_ implies excessive smoothness, as though one's manner were oiled. The word carries a decided suggestion of hypocrisy. _Fulsome_ suggests such gross flattery as to be annoying or cloying. _Smug_ suggests an effeminate self-satisfaction, usually not justified by merit or achievement.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <complaisant, elegant, trim, dapper, spruce, genteel, urbane, well-bred, gracious, affable, benign>.

_Sentences_: He thought his answer exceedingly brilliant and settled back into his chair with ____ complacency. "____ the smile that like a wrinkling wind On glassy water drove his cheek in lines." They were irritated by his ____ praise. Although he disliked them, he greeted them with ____ cordiality. "A bankrupt, a prodigal, ... that used to come so ____ upon the mart; let him look to his bond." ____ as a diplomat.

<Talkative, loquacious, garrulous, fluent, voluble, glib>. (This group may be contrasted with the _Silent_ group, above.)

A little while ago you were in a crowded room and made a study of the persons disposed to silence. But your study was carried on under difficulties, for many of those about you showed a tendency to copious or excessive speech. One woman entered readily into conversation with you and convinced you that her natural disposition was to converse a great deal. She was _talkative_. From her you escaped to a man who soon proved that he talked too much and could run on with an incessant flow of words, perhaps employing many of them where a few would have sufficed. He was _loquacious_. The two of you were joined by an old gentleman who forthwith began to talk wordily, tediously, continuously, with needless repetitions and in tiresome detail; you suspected that he had suffered a mental decline from age, and that he might be excessively fond, in season and out of season, of talking about himself and his opinions. He was _garrulous_. You broke away from these two and fell into the hands of a much more agreeable interlocutor. He talked with a ready, easy command of words, so that his discourse _flowed_ smoothly. He was _fluent_. He introduced you to a lady whose speech possessed smoothness and ease in too great degree; it fairly _rolled_ along, as a hoop does downhill. The lady was _voluble_. Into your triangular group broke a newcomer whose speech had in it a flippant, or at least a superficially clever, fluency. He was _glib_. Leaving these three to fight (or talk) it out as best they might, you grabbed your hat and hurried outside for a fresh whiff of air.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <chattering, long-winded, prolix, wordy, verbose>.

_Sentences_: The insurance agent was so ____ a talker that I was soothed into sleepiness by his voice. The ____ old man could talk forever about the happenings of his boyhood. Through ____ descriptions of life in the city the dapper summer boarder entranced the simple country girl. I met a ____ fellow on the train, and we had a long conversation. She was so ____ that I spent half the afternoon with her and learned nothing.

<Weak, debilitated, feeble, infirm, decrepit, impotent>.

_Weak_ is the general word for that which is deficient in strength. _Debilitated_ is used of physical weakness, in most instances brought on by excesses and abuses. _Feeble_ denotes decided or extreme weakness, which may excite pity or contempt. _Infirm_ is applied to a person whose weakness or feebleness is due to age. _Decrepit_ is used in reference to a person broken down or worn out by infirmities, age, or sickness. _Impotent_ implies such loss or lack of strength or vitality as to render ineffective or helpless.

_Assignment for further discrimination_: <enervated, languid, frail>.

_Sentences_: "Here I stand, your slave, A poor, ____, weak, and despis'd old man." A[n] ____ old man shuffled along with the aid of a cane. Though still in his youth, he was ____ from intemperance and fast living. A fellow who does that has a[n] ____ mind. He staggered about trying to strike his opponent, but rage and his wound rendered him for the time ____. The grasp of the old man was so ____ that the cup trembled in his hand. "Like rich hangings in a homely house, So was his will in his old ____ body." After his long illness he was as ____ as a child. He made but a[n] ____ attempt to defend himself.

<Wise, learned, erudite, sagacious, sapient, sage, judicious, prudent, provident, discreet>. (Compare the distinction between _knowledge_ and _wisdom_ under Words Often Confused above.)

_Wise_ implies sound and discriminating judgment, resulting from either learning or experience. _Learned_ denotes the past acquisition of much information through study. _Erudite_ means characterized by extensive or profound knowledge. _Sagacious_ implies far-sighted judgment and intuitive discernment, especially in practical matters. _Sapient_ is now of infrequent use except as applied ironically or playfully to one having or professing wisdom. _Sage_ implies deep wisdom that comes from age or experience. _Judicious_ denotes sound judgment or careful discretion in weighing a matter with reference to its merits or its consequences. _Prudent_ conveys a sense of cautious foresight in judging the future and planning for it upon the basis of the circumstances at hand. _Provident_ suggests practical foresight and careful economy in preparing for future needs. _Discreet_ denotes care or painstakingness in doing or saying the right thing at the right time, and the avoidance thereby of errors or unpleasant results.

_Sentences_: Against the time when his children would be going to college he had been ____. "Most ____ judge!" The ____ old warrior could not be deceived by any such ruse. "Be ye therefore as ____ as serpents, and harmless as doves." The ____ advice of his elders was wasted on him. The course was ____, not rash. He was ____ in avoiding all reference to the subject. "Type of the ____, who soar but never roam, True to the kindred points of heaven and home." Even by those scholars, those specialists, he was deemed ____. How ____ the young man is! "Where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be ____." Is it ____ to spend money thus lavishly? He considered the matter well and gave a most ____ answer. To spend every cent of one's income is surely not to be ____.

<Work, labor, toil, drudgery>.

All of us, at times anyhow, get out of as much work as we can. We even use the word _work_ and its synonyms loosely and indolently. Perhaps this is a literary aspect of the labor problem. If, however, we can shake off our sluggishness and exert ourselves in discriminating our terms, we shall use _work_ as a general word for effort, physical or mental, to some purposive end; _labor_ for hard, physical work; _toil_ for wearying or exhaustive work; and _drudgery_ for tedious, monotonous, or distasteful work, especially of a low or menial kind.

_Sentences_: It required the ____ of thousands of men to complete the tunnel. To be condemned to the galleys meant a life of unending ____. The man who enjoys his ____ will succeed. Twenty years of incessant ____ had extinguished in him every spark of ambition. He was weary after the ____ of the day. All ____ and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Through the heart-breaking ____ of thousands the pyramids were built to commemorate a few. He was sentenced to hard ____.

VIII

SYNONYMS IN LARGER GROUPS (2)

You have now seen enough of the method of discriminating synonyms to take more of the responsibility for such work upon yourself. In this chapter, therefore, the plan followed in Exercise A is abandoned and no discriminations are supplied you.

EXERCISE B

For some of the generic words in Exercise A you will find antonyms in Exercise C. Here is a list:

In Exercise A: walk, laugh, busy, hate, masculine, old

In Exercise C: run, cry, idle, love, feminine, young.

Now each of the generic terms in C is followed by a list of its synonyms. But for the six generic terms just given let us see how many synonyms you can find for yourself. Simply study each word in turn, think of all the synonyms for it you can summon, strike out those you consider far-fetched. Then compare your list with the list under the antonym in Exercise A; if possible, improve your list by means of this comparison. Finally, compare your revised list with the list in Exercise C.

In Exercise C are two generic terms that carry the same idea (but not in the same part of speech) as generic terms in Exercise A. They are as follows:

In Exercise A: sing, death

In Exercise C: song, die.

Take _song_ and _die_. First, find all the satisfactory synonyms you can for yourself. Then if possible improve your list by studying the list under the corresponding word in Exercise A. Finally, compare your revised list with the one in Exercise C.

EXERCISE C

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.

Discriminate the words in each group, and fill each blank in the illustrative sentences with the word that conveys the meaning exactly.

<See, perceive, descry, distinguish, espy, discern, note, notice, watch, observe, witness, behold, view>.

_Sentences_: The intruder he ____ in the early dawn-light might have been man or beast; he could not have ____ one from the other. After a long search I ____ on the map the name of the town. The teacher ____ the throwing of the paper wad, but thought best not to ____ it. "He that hath eyes to ____, let him ____." I ____ the encounter. "I hope to ____ my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar." "When my eyes turn to ____ for the last time the sun in heaven." I sat by the flower and ____ the bee plunder it. The scrawl on the paper was meaningless, but at length by close attention he ____ secret writing. "Your young men shall ____ visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." He had ____ human nature manifesting itself under various conditions.

<Kill, slay, slaughter, massacre, butcher, murder, assassinate, execute, hang, electrocute, guillotine, lynch, despatch, decimate, crucify>.

_Sentences_: With the jawbone of an ass Samson ____ a thousand of his enemies. It was his duty as sheriff to ____ the criminal, and the method decreed by the state was that he should ____ him. Previously the method of carrying out a sentence of death had been to ____ the criminal. On our left wing we lost one man in ten: thus our lines were literally ____ On our right wing, where we advanced to the attack in the open, our men were simply ____. After the garrison had laid down its arms the Indians ____ men, women, and children. "I would not ____ thy soul." During the French Revolution many of the nobility were ____. In the country late fall is the time to ____ hogs. Thinking that his accomplice was no longer of use, he quietly ____ him. The anarchist who had ____ the governor was taken by a mob and ____.

<Sleep, slumber, repose, nap, doze, drowze, lethargy, dormancy, coma, trance, siesta>.

_Sentences_: Since he had not exerted himself beforehand, his state was one of ____ rather than one of ____. The sultry heat of the day put him into a ____. "Not poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the ____ syrops of the world, Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet ____ Which thou ow[n]edst yesterday." Light and pleasant be thy ____. "And still she slept an azure-lidded ____." From the ____ induced by his injury the physicians were unable to arouse him. "Oh ____! it is a gentle thing, Beloved from pole to pole!" "The poppied warmth of ____ oppress'd Her soothéd limbs, and soul fatigued away." In Spanish-speaking South American countries every one expects to take his ____. He lay down under the tree for a short ____ and had just fallen into a preliminary ____ when the picnic party arrived. "Macbeth does murder ____, the innocent ____, ____ that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care."

<Abolish, repeal, rescind, revoke, abrogate, annul, nullify, cancel, reverse>.

_Sentences_: A declaration of war would of course ____ the treaty. The legislature has the right to ____ old laws as well as to enact new ones. Because they left his grounds littered with paper, he ____ their privilege of holding picnics there. The king ____ the decree that the conspirators should be exiled. Slavery was ____ by the Emancipation Proclamation. The emperor ____ many of the ancient rights of the people. They ____ the mortgage when he paid the money. The violation of these provisions has ____ the contract. It was an ill day for France when the Edict of Nantes was ____ by Louis XIV. The Supreme Court ____ the decision of the lower tribunal. The Mormons have officially ____ polygamy. The codicil ____ some of the earlier provisions in his will.

<Acquit, exculpate, exonerate, absolve>.

_Sentences_: He ____ himself from all blame. The king ____ them from their allegiance. The teacher ____ the student who had been suspected of theft. The father confessor ____ the penitent. The jury ____ the man on the first ballot.

<Afraid, fearful, frightened, alarmed, scared, aghast, terrified, timid, timorous.> (This group may be compared with the _Fear group_, below.)

_Sentences_: One child was too ____ to speak to the strangers; the other too ____ to do anything but squall. "If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper 'Lo, Caesar is ____'?" Any one might have been ____ by this noise in a room said to be haunted; and for my part, I stood ____.

<Allay, alleviate, mitigate, assuage, mollify, relieve.>

_Sentences_: The judge ____ the severity of the punishment. They collected funds to ____ the sufferings of the poor. He could not ____ the wrath of the angry man. Shall we try to ____ their fears by telling them the accident may have been less calamitous than they have heard? A mustard plaster ____ the pain. The grief of the mother was ____ by the presence of her child. This experience had by no means ____ his temper.

<Allow, permit, suffer, tolerate.>

_Sentences_: Visitors are not ____ to see the king. The over-running of my yard by the neighbors' chickens is a nuisance I shall not ____. "____ little children to come unto me." The use of bicycles and velocipedes on the pavement, though not ____ by the city, is good-naturedly ____ by most of the citizens. She ____ her children to play in the street.

<Ascribe, attribute, impute.>

_Sentences_: I ____ my failure to poor judgment. He ____ sinister motives for their actions. So many ideal characteristics have been ____ to Washington that it is difficult to think of him as a man.

<Awkward, clumsy, ungainly, gawky, lanky.>

_Sentences_: An elephant is ____ in its movements. Some ____ countrymen hung around the circus entrance. He was tall and ____; he seemed to be a mere prop on which clothes were hung. Isn't that man ____ in his carriage? The fingers of the ball-players might as well have been thumbs, so ____ were they from the cold. Girls throw a ball in a[n] ____ manner.

<Bite, nibble, gnaw, chew, masticate, champ>.

_Sentences_: Fletcher taught people to ____ their food well. The mouse ____ the cheese, but the trap did not spring. A horse ____ his bits. When I ____ into the apple, I found that it was sour. The rat ____ a hole through the board.

<Break, crack, fracture, sever, rend, burst, smash, shatter, shiver, splinter, sunder, rive, crush, batter, demolish, rupture>. (After discriminating these terms for yourself, see the treatment of _break, fracture_ under <Break, fracture> above under Parallels.)

_Sentences_: "____ my timbers!" the old salt exclaimed. The anaconda is an immense serpent that wraps itself about its victim and ____ it. The child blew the soap bubble wider and wider till it ____. "You may ____, you may ____ the vase if you will." Looking closely at the eggs, she perceived that one of them was ____. With a board the thoughtless child ____ the anthill. During a violent fit of coughing he ____ a blood vessel. The thick cloud was ____ and the sunshine streamed through.

<Careful, cautious, wary, circumspect, canny>.

_Sentences_: A mouse must be ____ lest it be caught in a trap. He had learned to be ____ in advancing his radical opinions. The man was a Scot and therefore ____. With a ____ movement I opened the door to investigate the strange noise. He was ____ in checking up the accounts. Be extremely ____ in your behavior, for they are watching to criticize you.

<Condescend, deign, vouchsafe>.

_Sentences_: The king ____ them safe conduct through the country. He would not ____ to touch the money that had been gained dishonestly. His ____ manner irritated them. The master ____ to hear the complaints of the servants.

<Confirm, corroborate, substantiate, verify_.

_Sentences_: He ____ the charge with positive proof. The finding of Desdemona's handkerchief ____ Othello's belief that she was guilty. The other witnesses ____ his testimony. The doctor ____ the appointment his assistant had made for him. He ____ his results by repeating the experiment a number of times.

<Courage, bravery, resolution, dauntlessness, gallantry, boldness, intrepidity, daring, valor, prowess, fortitude, heroism>. (With this group contrast the _Fear_ group, below.)

_Sentences_: It seemed they must be driven from their works but they held to them with the utmost ____. He had the ____ to fight an aggressive battle, but not the ____ to stand for long days upon the defensive; less still did he have the ____ to disregard unjust criticism. The silent ____ of the women who bide at home surpasses the ____ the warriors who engage in battle. He had the dashing ____ of a cavalry officer.

<Cruel, brutal, ferocious, fierce, savage, barbarous, truculent, merciless, unmerciful, pitiless, ruthless, fell>. (With this group contrast the _Kind_ group, below.)

_Sentences_: "But with the whiff and wind of his ____ sword The unnerved father falls." "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, That bide the pelting of this ____ storm." The ____ fellow could cause suffering to a child without the least tinge of remorse. Such conduct is unheard of in civilized communities; it is ____, it is ____. "I must be ____ only to be kind."

<Cry, weep, sob, snivel, whimper, blubber, bawl, squall, howl, wail>.

_Sentences_: "____ no more, woeful shepherds; ____ no more." The woman covered her face with her hands and ____, while the children ____. He ____ a forced regret at the death of his uncle, and asked that the will be read, "Rachel ____ for her children." "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and ____ with them that ____." "I could lie down like a tired child And ____ away this life of care Which I have borne and yet must bear." "An infant ____ in the night." "What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba That he should ____ for her?" I was disgusted at the sight of that overgrown boy standing in the corner ____. "You think I'll ____; No, I'll not ____: I have full cause of ____, but this heart Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or ere I'll ____."

<Cut, cleave, hack, haggle, notch, slash, gash, split, chop, hew, lop, prune, reap, mow, clip, shear, trim, dock, crop, shave, whittle, slice, slit, score, lance, carve, bisect, dissect, amputate, detruncate, syncopate.>

_Sentences_: "I'll ____ around your heart with my razor, And shoot you with my shotgun too." "O Hamlet! thou hast ____ my heart in twain." By the pressure of his hands he could ____ an apple. With his new hatchet George began ____ at the cherry tree. He carelessly ____ off a branch or two. The horses were ____ the rank grass. An old form of punishment was to ____ the nose of the offender. The nobleman ordered the groom to ____ the tails of the carriage horses. You should ____ your meadows in the summer and ____ your grapevines in the late fall or early winter. "Do you," asked the barber, "wish your hair ____ or ____?" ____ to the line. It is painful to see Dodwell trying to ____ a turkey. In geometry we learned to ____ angles, in biology to ____ cats. The bad man in the West ____ his gunstock each time he shot a tenderfoot. Betty, will you ____ this cucumber? "'Mark's way,' said Mark, and ____ him thro' the brain."

<Deadly, mortal, fatal, lethal>.

_Sentences_: He has a ____ disease. The spirit of Virgil guided Dante through the ____ shades. Cyanide of potassium is a ____ poison. He struck a ____ blow.

<Defeat, subdue, conquer, overcome, vanquish, subjugate, suppress>.

_Sentences_: Napoleon ____ his enemies in many battles, but he was not able to ____ them. The new governor general ____ the uprising. He was ____ in the election. Caesar ____ many countries and made them swear allegiance to Rome. "Who ____ by force Hath ____ but half his foe." The militia ____ the rioters.

<Deny, contravene, controvert, refute, confute>.

_Sentences_: He produced evidence to ____ the charge. They could not ____ the facts we presented. It is difficult to ____ those who are spreading these rumors, yet all right-minded people think the rumors false. "I put thee now to thy book-oath; ____ it if thou canst." Either admit or ____ the truth of this allegation. Such a law ____ the first principles of justice.

<Destroy, demolish, raze, annihilate, exterminate, eradicate, extirpate, obliterate.>

_Sentences_: All the ferocious wild animals are gradually being ____. As weeds from a field, so is it difficult to ____ all the faults from man's nature. But how shall we ____ the cause of this disease? Fire ____ the bank. The wrecking crew ____ the building. She tried to ____ the terrible scene from her memory. "____ all that's made To a green thought in a green shade." The cyclone ____ the church. The Spanish Inquisition tried to ____ heresy. "____ out the written troubles of the brain." The army was not only defeated; it was ____. "A bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once ____, can never be supplied."

<Die, expire, perish, decease, succumb.>

_Sentences_: All men are mortal and must ____. "As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked ____ at the presence of God." "I still had hopes, my long vexations past, Here to return, and ____ at home at last." The late ____ Mr. Brown left all his property to his family. "Cowards ____ many times before their deaths." "The poor beetle, that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant giant ____." "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not ____ from the earth." "Thus on Maeander's flowery margin lies Th' ____ swan, and as he sings he dies." Over a thousand people ____ in the fire at the theater. "To ____, to sleep; to sleep: perchance to dream." He ____ to a lingering disease. "Aye, but to ____, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction and to rot." "Wind my thread of life up higher, Up, through angels' hands of fire! I aspire while I ____."

<Dip, douse, duck, plunge, immerge, immerse, submerge, sink, dive.>

_Sentences_: He ____ his head under the hydrant. The Baptists ____ at baptism. She ____ the cloth into the dye. The sophomores ____ the freshmen into the icy water of the lake. Paul Jones could not ____ the enemy's ship; he therefore resolved to board it. The wreck lay ____ in forty fathoms of water. Uncle Tom ____ overboard to rescue the child. When the gun is discharged, the loon does not rise from the water; it ____. Lewis became badly strangled when the other boys ____ him.

<Disease, sickness, illness, indisposition, ailment, affection, complaint, disorder, distemper, infirmity, malady.> (With this group contrast the _healthful_ group.)

_Sentences_: He was suffering the ____ of age. Cancer is still in many instances an incurable ____ The ____ of the lady ended as soon as the maid told her the callers had gone away. It was an old ____ of the tonsils, but this time the child's ____ was slight. "To help me through this long ____, my life."

<Disloyal, false, unfaithful, faithless, traitorous, treasonable, treacherous, perfidious.>

_Sentences_: The king discovered many ____ schemes among those who pretended to be his loyal supporters. England's enemies have long called her "____ Albion." They were afraid the Indian guide would betray them by some ____ action. "O you beast! O ____ coward! O dishonest wretch!" He was ____ to his adopted country. "Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, ____, lecherous, kindless villain! O! vengeance!"

<Do, perform, execute, accomplish, achieve, effect.>

_Sentences_: An officer ____ the orders with despatch. He ____ a mighty name for himself. "If it were ____ when 'tis ____ then 'twere well It were ____ quickly." Constant efforts will ____ miracles. The student ____ the problems quickly. The doctor hopes his new treatment will ____ a cure. "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to ____." He persevered till he ____ his purpose. He always ____ more than was expected of him.

<Dress, clothes, clothing, garments, apparel, raiment, habiliments, vestments, attire, garb, habit, costume, uniform.>

_Sentences_: The spy concealed his identity by wearing the ____ of a monk. The soldiers wore blue ____. She was an excellent horsewoman, and rode in a fashionable ____. "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old ____." Millions of men left farms and factories and shops to don the ____ of war. The invitation specified that the men should wear evening ____. The store specialized in women's wearing ____. A person should wear warm ____ in winter. The king appeared in his royal ____. He always wore expensive ____. The bishop entered in his clerical ____. "The ____ oft proclaims the man." The theatrical ____ was full of spangles. One's ____ should never be conspicuous.

<Drink, imbibe, sip, sup, swallow, quaff, tipple, tope, guzzle, swig.>

_Sentences_: "She who, as they voyaged, ____ With Tristram that spiced magic draught." Plants ____ moisture through their roots. "A little learning is a dang'rous thing; ____ deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." He ____ down the liquor in a couple of huge draughts. On the fan was a picture of Japanese maidens daintily ____ tea. "____ to me only with thine eyes." His red nose betrayed the fact that he constantly ____.

<Elicit, extract, exact, extort.>

_Sentences_: They ____ payment to the last cent. The police ____ a confession from the prisoner by intimidating him. This terrible suffering ____ our sympathy. His resolve to begin again after his failure ____ their admiration. "But lend it rather to thine enemy; Who if he break, thou mayst with better face ____ the penalty." They ____ all the information they could by questioning the child.

<Embarrass, disconcert, discompose, discomfit, confuse, confound, agitate, abash, mortify, chagrin, humiliate.>

_Sentences_: The annoying little raids ____ the enemy. Such conclusive proof of his lies completely ____ him. His sudden proposal ____ her. He stood ____ in the presence of the king. The traveler was ____ by the many turns in the road. She was ____ by the delay in having dinner ready. She was ____ by her husband's ill manners. The possibility that her daughter might have been in the accident ____ her. I was ____ at being so cleverly outwitted.

<Excuse, pardon, forgive, condone.>

_Sentences_: We should ____ even those who do us wrong. "Father, ____ them; for they know not what they do." I trust you will ____ my being late. Ignorance ____ no one before the law. The governor ____ the convict. He thought it better to ____ the offense than to try to punish it.

<Explain, expound, interpret, elucidate.>

_Sentences_: The minister ____ the doctrine of predestination. The tribesman ____ his chief's words for us. He ____ his meaning by giving clear examples. Joseph was called upon to ____ Pharaoh's dream. Can you ____ the reason for your absence? Various scholars have ____ the passage differently.

<Fat, fleshy, stout, plump, buxom, corpulent, obese, portly, pursy, burly, pudgy, chubby.>

_Sentences_: "There live not three good men unhanged in England, and one of them is ____ and grows old." A[n] ____ rosy-faced child walking beside a girl just pleasantly ____ came past the garden. The ____ lady was talking with a[n] ____, ill-conditioned man. "So ____, blithe, and debonair." "He's ____ and scant of breath." The ruffian was a[n] ____ fellow. They were ____ in varying degrees: one was ____, one ____, and one downright ____.

<Fear, dread, fright, apprehension, affright, alarm, dismay, timidity, consternation, panic, terror, horror, misgiving, anxiety, scare, tremor, trepidation.> (With this group compare the _Afraid_ group, above, and contrast the _Courage_ group, also above.)

_Sentences_: "Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in ____ and ____." "His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the ____ and ____ of kings." ____ changed to ____ when we perceived the corpse. Washington felt some ____ as to the loyalty of Charles Lee, but was amazed to find his force retreating in ____, indeed almost in a[n] ____.

<Feminine, female, womanly, womanlike, womanish, effeminate, ladylike.>

_Sentences_: She possessed every ____ charm. He gave a[n] ____ start of curiosity. The pistil is considered the ____ organ of a flower. It was once not thought ____ for a woman to ride astride a horse. He inherited the throne through the ____ line. Patience is one of the greatest of ____ virtues. The hired girl in her finery minced along with a[n] ____ step. Some people consider it ____ to wear a wrist watch. Her ____ heart was touched at the sight. It is ____ to jump at the sight of a mouse.

<Fight, combat, struggle, scuffle, fray, affray, attack, engagement, assault, onslaught, brawl, melee, tournament, battle, conflict, strife, clash, collision, contest, skirmish, encounter, brush, bout, set-to.>

_Sentences_: "A darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of ____ and flight." The ____ upon Fort Sumter was the direct cause of the Civil War. The ____ between our forces and theirs was brief and trivial; it was only a cavalry ____. There is an excellent account of a knightly ____ in _Ivanhoe_. We repelled their general ____; then ourselves advanced; the ____ of our lines with theirs soon resulted in an inextricable ____. A chance ____ of small forces at Gettysburg brought on a terrible ____. There had long been ____ between the two factions within the party. Angered by what had begun as a playful ____, one of the men challenged the other to ____.

<Fleeting, transient, transitory, ephemeral, evanescent.>

_Sentences_: It is the lot of every one to endure many sorrows in this ____ life. They saw for a short while a[n] ____ comet. The ____ glories of dawn had merged into the sordid realities of daytime. The remark made but a[n] ____ impression upon him. The ____ moments sped away. "Art is long, and time is ____." Joy is ____. Much of the popular literature of the day is ____ in character.

<Frank, candid, open, artless, guileless, ingenuous, unsophisticated, naive.>

_Sentences_: It was a[n] ____ excuse. It was a pleasure to meet a person so simple and ____. He was ____ to say that he did not like the arrangement. "Who, mindful of the unhonored dead, Dost in these lines their ____ tale relate." "The Moor is of a free and ____ nature." He gave them his ____ opinion.

<Frustrate, foil, thwart, counteract, circumvent, balk, baffle, outwit.>

_Sentences_: The schemers were themselves ____. He was ____ by the many contradictory clues. Circumstances ____ all his plans to get rich. The parents ____ the attempt of the couple to elope. The guard ____ the prisoner's attempt to escape. He was ____ at every turn. They put forth a statement to ____ the influence of their opponents' propaganda. By slipping away during the night, Washington ____ the enemy. The politician by his shrewdness ____ the attempt to discredit him.

<Glad, happy, cheerful, mirthful, joyful, joyous, blithe, gay, frolicsome, merry, jolly, sportive, jovial, jocular, jocose, jocund.>

_Sentences_: "The milkmaid singeth ____." "And all went ____ as a marriage bell." "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring ____ tidings of good things." A ____ Lothario. "So buxom, ____, and debonair." As ____ as a fawn. He kept smiling, for he was in ____ mood. "You are sad Because you are not ____; and 'twere as easy For you to laugh and leap, and say you are ____, Because you are not sad." He longed for the ____ life of a ____ English squire.

<Habit, custom, usage, practice, wont.>

_Sentences_: ____ makes perfect. The immigrants kept up many of the ____ of their native land. "God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good ____ should corrupt the world." It was his ____ to walk among the ruins. An old ____ permits a man to kiss a girl who is standing under mistletoe. ____ establishes many peculiar idioms in a language. He acquired the ____ of smoking. "It is a ____ more honor'd in the breach than the observance." De Quincey was a victim of the opium ____. "Age cannot wither her, nor ____ stale Her infinite variety." "'Tis not his ____ to be the hindmost man."

<Harass, annoy, irritate, vex, fret, worry, plague, torment, molest, tease, tantalize.>

_Sentences_: The merchant ____ about his financial losses. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and ____ his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more." The children never lost an opportunity to ____ the teacher. The other pupils ____ him because he was the teacher's favorite. The newcomer was ____ by their frequent questions. Don't ____ the child by holding the grapes beyond its reach. "He was met even now As mad as the ____ sea." Ah, but I am ____ by doubts and fears. "The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bower, ____ her ancient, solitary reign." The child ____ because the rain kept it indoors. When the joke was discovered, they almost ____ the life out of him. I was ____ at their discovering my predicament. "You may as well forbid the mountain pines To wag their high tops, and to make no noise When they are ____ with the gusts of heaven."

<Hinder, restrain, obstruct, impede, hamper, retard, check, curb, clog, encumber, forestall, suppress, repress, prevent.>

_Sentences_: Baggage ____ the progress of an army. It is the purpose of modern medicine to ____ disease. The accumulations of dust and grease ____ the machine. "My tears must stop, for every drop ____ needle and thread." By acknowledging his fault he hoped to ____ criticism. Though before she had been unable to ____ her tears, she could now scarcely ____ a yawn. A fallen tree ____ his further progress. The horse was ____ with a heavy burden, and the unsure footing of the trail further ____ the ascent. His jealous colleagues ____ his plans in every way they could.

<Hole, cavity, excavation, pit, cache, cave, cavern, hollow, depression, perforation, puncture, rent, slit, crack, chink, crevice, cranny, breach, cleft, chasm, fissure, gap, opening, interstice, burrow, crater, eyelet, pore, bore, aperture, orifice, vent, concavity, dent, indentation. >

_Sentences_: The explorers, having eaten all the provisions they had carried with them, hurried back to their ____. The battering-ram at last made a[n] ____ in the walls. The ____ in the log had been caused by the intense heat. He tore off the check along the line of the ____. The ____ in the earth gradually deepened and narrowed into a[n] ____. Pyramus and Thisbe made love to each other through a[n] ____ in a wall. "Once more unto the ____, dear friends, once more." The ____ in the mountain ranges of Virginia influenced strategy during the Civil War. Several ____ in the toe of one of his shoes apprised me that he had a sore foot. The supposed ____ in the rock turned out to be a[n] ____ that led into a dark but spacious ____. He suffered a[n] ____ of one of his tires near the place where the laborers were making the ____. It was a gun of very large ____. The ____ in the percolator was made by a flatiron aimed at Mr. Wiggins' head.

<Idle, inert, lazy, indolent, sluggish, slothful.>

_Sentences_: "He also that is ____ in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." "The ____ singer of an empty day." Mighty, ____ forces lie locked up in nature, waiting for man to release them. He was a[n] ____, good-for-nothing fellow whose whole business in life was to keep out of work. "For Satan finds some mischief still For ____ hands to do." He was too ____ to do his work well. "The ____ yawning drone." His steps were so ____ one would almost think he was not moving. "As ____ as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean." "I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an ____ brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy."

<Ignorant, illiterate, uninformed, uneducated, untutored, unlettered, unenlightened.>

_Sentences_: Without public schools most children would be ____; without missionaries many barbarous tribes would remain ____. Andrew Jackson was ____ that peace had been declared when he fought the battle of New Orleans. Even the wisest men are ____ upon some subjects. "Lo, the poor Indian, whose ____ mind Sees God in clouds or hears Him in the wind!" The mountain whites, though often totally ____, are nevertheless a shrewd folk. "Their name, their years, spelt by th' ____ muse, The place of fame and elegy supply." The percentage of ____ persons is constantly decreasing in America.

<Incline, tip, lean, cant, slant, slope, tilt, list, careen, dip.>

_Sentences_: He ____ the bucket of water over. The vessel ____ to the stern and began to sink. The ship ____ to larboard. He ____ the top of the picture away from the wall. The sprinter ____ forward and touched the tips of his fingers against the ground. The gable ____ sharply. The hill ____ gently. The cowboy had ____ his hat fetchingly.

<Journey, voyage, tour, pilgrimage, trip, jaunt, excursion, junket, outing, expedition.>

_Sentences_: The people protested the expenditure of money for a Congressional ____ to investigate the Philippine Islands. Each Sunday there is a[n] ____ at half fare between the two cities. He conducted a party on a summer ____ through Europe. Last summer I took a[n] ____ to the Yellowstone National Park. It was a long ____ from Philadelphia to Boston by stage coach. They hurriedly arranged for a[n] ____ to the woods. Magellan was the first man to make a[n] ____ around the globe. The scientific body organized a[n] ____ to explore the polar regions. Thousands of Mohammedans make an annual ____ to Mecca.

<Kind, compassionate, merciful, lenient, benignant, benign, clement, benevolent, charitable, gracious, humane, sympathetic.> (With this group compare the _Cruel_ group, above.)

_Sentences_: The weather was ____. She was as ____ as a queen. "Thou dost wear The Godhead's most ____ grace." Cowper was too ____ to tread upon a worm needlessly. A judge in sentencing a convicted man may be as ____ as circumstances and the law allow. ____ neutrality. "Blessed are the ____." "She was so ____ and so pitous She wolde wepe if that she sawe a mous Caught in a trappe." "____ hearts are more than coronets."

<Love, affection, attachment, fondness, infatuation, devotion, predilection, liking.>

_Sentences_: Between the two young people had grown a[n] ____ which now ripened into ____. "The course of true ____ never did run smooth." The mad ____ of Mark Antony for Cleopatra was the cause of his downfall. She had only a[n] ____ for him, but he an unqualified ____ for her. "Man's ____ is of his life a thing apart; 'Tis woman's whole existence." He shows a marked ____ for the companionship of women. My ____ for the tart was enhanced by my ____ for the girl who baked it. That boy shows a[n] ____ for horses, and a positive ____ for dogs.

<Margin, edge, limit, border, boundary, bound, bourn, brim, rim, brink, verge, skirt, confine.>

_Sentences_: He had reached the ____ of endurance. In writing, leave a wide ____ on the left side of the page. "Borrowing dulls the ____ of husbandry." "The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his ____." Within the ____ of reason. He stood on the ____ of ruin. The rock at the ____ of the cañon is called the ____ rock. I was on the ____ of doing a very indiscreet thing. "The undiscover'd country from whose ____ No traveler returns." Fill your glasses to the ____.

<Matrimonial, conjugal, connubial, nuptial, marital.>

_Sentences_: "However old a ____ union, it still garners some sweetness." A court of ____ relations. "Contented toil, and hospitable care, And kind ____ tenderness are there." "To the ____ bower I led her, blushing like the morn." She finally decided that he had no ____ intentions. "And hears the unexpressive ____ song In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love."

<Occupation, employment, calling, pursuit, vocation, avocation, profession, business, trade, craft.>

_Sentences_: He gave his life to literary ____. My brother found ____ as a tutor in a rich family. Colleges are trying to direct their students into the ____ they are best fitted for. Andrew Johnson was a tailor by ____. Medicine is a very ancient ____. The shoemaker was very skilled at his ____. After losing his hand he could no longer engage in his ____ as telegrapher. The grocer carries on only a wholesale ____. He considered his ____ to the ministry a sacred duty. "Sir, 'tis my ____ to be plain." Do you find collecting coins a pleasant ____?

<Pacify, appease, placate, propitiate, conciliate, mollify>.

_Sentences_: We ____ our hunger when we reached the inn. In olden times men tried to ____ the offended gods by offering human sacrifices. They ____ the angry man by promising to hear his grievances immediately. The premier thought he could ____ this particular faction by offering its leader a seat in the cabinet. "Chiron ____ his cruel mind With art, and taught his warlike hands to wind The silver strings of his melodious lyre." A friendly word will usually ____ one's enemies.

<Part, piece, portion, section, subdivision, fraction, instalment element, component, constituent, ingredient, share, lot, allotment>.

_Sentences_: One ____ in his success was his courage. She was studying the ____ of the pie; he the chances of getting another ____. Is it ____ and ____ alike? "I live not in myself, but I become ____ of that around me." "Act well your ____; there all the honor lies." He owned a[n] ____ of land near the city limits; a speculator bought a[n] ____ of this and divided it into city lots. "I am a[n] ____ of all that I have met." The purchaser, having only a[n] ____ of this sum in ready money, offered to pay in ____.

<Pay, hire, salary, wages, fee, stipend, honorarium>.

_Sentences_: Give the manager his ____, the workmen their ____. "The laborer is worthy of his ____." He received his weekly ____ from the parsimonious old man. The ____ for enrolment is ten dollars. "This is ____ and ____, not revenge."

<Polite, civil, obliging, courteous, courtly, urbane, affable, complaisant, gracious>.

_Sentences_: He was ____ enough, but not definitely ____. "So ____ that he ne'er ____." Though he had never lived in a city, much less in the circle of royalty, his manners were ____, even ____. Your desire to please is shown in your ____ greeting. "Damn with faint praise, assent with ____ leer, And without sneering teach the rest to sneer."

<Quarrel, altercation, disagreement, contention, controversy, breach, rupture, dispute, dissension, bickering, wrangle, broil, squabble, row, rumpus, ruction, spat, tiff, fuss, jar, feud.>

_Sentences_: It was only a little ____ between lovers. The ____ between the partners was over the right of the senior to make contracts for the firm; it grew into an angry ____. It was a long-drawn political ____. At the meeting of our committee the chairman and one of the members had a sharp ____ over a point of order. A[n] ____ in some minor matters led to a[n] ____ in their friendship. "Thrice is he armed that hath his ____ just." Those chattering, choleric fellows are always engaged in ____; last night they on meeting had a[n] ____ which brought on a long-drawn ____, and when their friends joined in, there was a noisy ____. I have seen all sorts of ____, from a trivial childish ____ to a grim ____ of mountaineers.

<Raise, lift, heave, hoist, erect, rear, elevate, exalt, enhance.>

_Sentences_: Let the Lord be ____. "As some tall cliff that ____ its awful form." Because of this success his reputation was ____. The horse ____ when the machine began to ____ the huge block of stone by means of a crane. "I will ____ up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." The load was too heavy for him to carry; in fact he just managed to ____ it into the wagon.

<Relinquish, waive, renounce, surrender, forego, resign, abdicate.>

_Sentences_: The defense ____ objection to the first of these points. The refugee was willing to ____ his right to resist extradition. The teacher ____ her position at the end of the year. The king ____ when the people rose in revolt. He ____ his command of the army. Do you ____ your claim in this mine? The bankrupt ____ his property to the receiver to help pay his debts.

<Renounce, abjure, forswear, recant, retract, repudiate>.

_Sentences_: He ____ the statement. Thereupon Henry Esmond ____ his allegiance to the House of Stuart. It is a serious matter for a government to ____ its debts. Did the heretic ____? Do you ____ the devil and all his works? "The wounded gladiator ____ all fighting, but soon forgetting his former wounds resumes his arms." He had broken his solemn oath; he was ____.

<Reprove, rebuke, reprimand, admonish, chide, upbraid, reproach, scold, rate, berate>.

_Sentences_: "He ____ their wanderings but relieved their pain." "Many a time and oft In the Rialto you have ____ me About my moneys and my usances." They ____ the man who had taken the savings of the poor, and ____ him against such schemes thereafter. The general ____ his subordinate.

<Robber, bandit, brigand, ladrone, desperado, buccaneer, freebooter, pirate, corsair, raider, burglar, footpad, highwayman, depredator, spoiler, despoiler, forager, pillager, plunderer, marauder, myrmidon>. (With this group compare the _Steal_ group, below.)

_Sentences_: Every boy has his period of wanting to be a ____. _Treasure Island_ is one of the best ____ stories ever written. The ____ lurks in dark passageways and steals upon his victim. The fierce followers of Achilles were called ____. The men sent out by the army as ____ seemed to the people of the countryside more like ____. The fearless ____ had soon gathered about him a band of ____. Robin Hood was no ____ of poor folk. The outcast became a ____ among the mountaineers of northern Italy. Every, boy likes to read of the bold ____ who sailed the Spanish Main. Union plans were often upset by daring Confederate ____, such as Stuart, Morgan, and Forrest.

<Run, scamper, scurry, scuttle, scud, scour, pace, gallop, trot, lope, sprint, sweep>.

_Sentences_: Swift horsemen ____ the country in search of the fugitive. Wherever they came, the inhabitants ____ for shelter. "The dish ____ away with the spoon." For his horse to ____ made difficult riding, to ____ made comfortable riding, to ____ made exhilarating riding. "He may ____ that readeth it." The old sailing-boat ____ before the wind. "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May ____ to my revenge." The rats ____ across the floor. "He who fights and ____ away May live to fight another day."

<Say, utter, pronounce, announce, state, declare, affirm, aver, asseverate, allege, assert, avouch, avow, maintain, claim, depose, predicate, swear, suggest, insinuate, testify>. (With this group compare the _Speak_ and _Talk_ groups, below.)

_Sentences_: It was something I merely ____ in passing; I would not ____ to it. I could not ____ in court, and therefore had to ____ before a notary. The scientist ____ that a seismograph will infallibly record earthquakes. He solemnly ____ that he would not ____ exemption from the draft.

<Shine, beam, gleam, glisten, glister, glitter, glare, flare, flash, sparkle, twinkle, dazzle, glimmer, glow, radiate, scintillate, coruscate>.

_Sentences_: The gorgeous parade ____ the boy. "____, ____, little star." He was witty that night; he fairly ____. At this compliment the old lady ____. "Now fades the ____ landscape on the sight." A rocket ____ in the darkness. She ____ her elderly wooer a look of defiance; then her eyes softened and ____ with amusement. "All that ____ is not gold." "How far that little candle throws his beams! So ____ a good deed in a naughty world." The old man ____ into sudden anger.

<Slander, defame, asperse, calumniate, traduce, vilify, malign, libel, backbite>.

_Sentences_: A newspaper must be careful not to ____ any one. Too many supposedly religious people ____ their fellow believers. I do not ____ your motives. He ____ the character of everybody who chances to possess one.

<Smell, odor, savor, scent, fragrance, aroma, perfume, redolence, tang, stench>.

_Sentences_: The ____ of the flowers in the vase mingled with the ____ of boiling cabbage in the kitchen. The ____ of spring is on the meadows. So keen was the hound's sense of ____ that he quickly picked up the ____ again. Any smoker likes the ____ of a good cigar. The ____ of the handkerchief was delicate. Though it was a disagreeable ____, I should hardly call it a[n] ____. The ____ of spices told him that his mother was baking his favorite cake, and he also detected the ____ of coffee. The ____ of the ocean was in the air. He sniffed the ____ of frying bacon.

<Song, ballad, ditty, lullaby, hymn, anthem, dirge, chant, paean, lay, carol, lilt>.

_Sentences_: "They learn in suffering what they teach in ____." The mother crooned a[n] ____ to her babe. The Highland girl sang a moving old ____. The worshipers sang a[n] ____ of praise. Charles Wesley wrote many ____. As I approached the cathedral, I could hear the ____ of larks outside and the ____ of the choir within. "Our sweetest ____ are those that tell of saddest thought." "A[n] ____ for her the doubly dead in that she died so young."

<Speak, discourse, expatiate, descant, comment, argue, persuade, plead, lecture, preach, harangue, rant, roar, spout, thunder, declaim, harp>. (With this group compare the _Say_ group, above, and the _Talk_ group, below.)

_Sentences_: "His virtues Will ____ like angels trumpet-tongu'd against The deep damnation of his taking-off." "Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, ... Come I to ____ in Caesar's funeral." "Ay me! what act, That ____ so loud and ____ in the index?" "Hadst thou thy wits and didst ____ revenge, It could not move thus." "Thou canst not ____ of that thou dost not feel." "Nay, if thou'lt mouth, I'll ____ as well as thou." While the politician ____ in the senate chamber upon theoretical ills, the agitator outside ____ the mob about actual ones. "For murder, though it have no tongue, will ____ With most miraculous organ."

<Spend, expend, disburse, squander, waste, lavish>.

_Sentences_: Large sums were ____ in rebuilding the devastated regions of France. ____ your money, but do not ____ it. One should not ____ more than one earns. The king ____ great sums upon his favorites. The political boss ____ the money among his henchmen. "The younger son ... ____ his substance with riotous living."

<Spot, blotch, speckle, fleck, dapple, smear, smutch, brand, defacement, blemish, stain, discoloration, speck, mark, smudge, flaw, defect, blot>.

_Sentences_: A ____ in the crystal. The ____ of Cain. A life free from ____. "Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained ____ As will not leave their tinct." From the standpoint of theatrical effectiveness _A ____ in the 'Scutcheon_ is one of the best of Browning's plays. An eruption of the skin made a yellow ____ on his right hand. Dragging my sleeve across the fresh ink had made a ____ upon the page. The ____ of foam by the roadside proved that his horse had been going fast. The ____ at the end of his fingers told me he was a cigarette-smoker. On the left foreleg of the horse was a slight ____.

<Stay, tarry, linger, stop, sojourn, remain, abide, live, reside, dwell, lodge.>

_Sentences_: The Israelites ____ in Egypt. He ____ to chat with us, but could not ____ overnight. I ____ in a wretched tavern. "I can ____, I can ____ but a night." "I did love the Moor to ____ with him." "He that shall come will come, and will not ____." "I will ____ in the house of the Lord forever." "If ye ____ in me, and my words ____ in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to ____ in the tents of wickedness." The guests ____ in the cheerful drawing-room.

<Steal, abstract, pilfer, filch, purloin, peculate, swindle, plagiarize, poach>. (With this group, which excludes the idea of violence, compare the _Robber_ group, above.)

_Sentences_: I am afraid that our son ____ the purse from the gentleman. No one knows how long the cashier has been ____ the funds of the bank. To take our money on such unsound security is to ____ us. He slyly ____ a handkerchief or two. This paragraph is clearly ____. "Thou shalt not ____." Many government employees seem to think that to ____ is their privilege and prerogative. The crown jewels have been ____. She ____ a number of petty articles. A well-known detective story by Poe is called _The ____ Letter._ "Who ____ my purse ____ trash.... But he that ____ from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed." "A cut-purse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem ____, And put it in his pocket!"

<Strike, hit, smite, thump, beat, cuff, buffet, knock, whack, belabor, pommel, pound, cudgel, slap, rap, tap, box.>

_Sentences_: ____ him into the middle of next week. He ____ and ____ the poor beast unmercifully. "As of some one gently ____, ____ at my chamber door." "Unto him that ____ thee on the one cheek offer also the other." "Bid them come forth and hear me, Or at their chamber door I'll ____ the drum Till it cry sleep to death." "One whom I will ____ into clamorous whining." "____ for your altars and your fires!" By means of heavy stones the squaws ____ the corn into meal.

<Sullen, surly, sulky, crabbed, cross, gruff, grum, glum, morose, dour, crusty, cynical, misanthropic, saturnine, splenetic.>

_Sentences_: "Between us and our hame [home], Where sits our ____, ____ dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm." A ____ old bachelor. A ____ Scotchman. He hated all men; he was truly ____. He sat ____ and silent all day; by nightfall he was truly ____.

<Talk, chat, chatter, prate, prattle, babble, gabble, jabber, tattle, twaddle, blab, gossip, palaver, parley, converse, mumble, mutter, stammer, stutter.> (With this group compare the _Say_ and _Speak_ groups, above.)

_Sentences_: It was a queer assembly, and from it arose a queer medley of sounds: the baby was ____, the old crone ____, the gossip ____, the embarrassed young man ____, the child ____ the tale-bearer ____, the hostess ____ with the most distinguished guest, and the trickster ____ with his intended victim. "Blest with each talent and each art to please, And born to write, ____, and live with ease." "I wonder that you will still be ____, Signor Benedick; nobody marks you."

<Tear, rend, rip, lacerate, mangle.>

_Sentences_: The explosion of the shell ____ his flesh. The tailor ____ the garment along the seam. I'll ____ this paper into bits. Those savages would ____ you limb from limb. She ____ her dress on a nail. The cogs caught his hand and ____ it. How could such reproaches fail to ____ my feelings?

<Throw, pitch, hurl, dash, fling, cast, toss, flip, chuck, sling, heave, launch, dart, propel, project.>

_Sentences_: Suddenly he ____ the glittering coins away. Goliath learned to his cost that David could ____ a stone. The explosion of the gunpowder ____ the bullet from the gun. "____ down your cups of Samian wine!" The children amused themselves by ____ the ball back and forth. He ____ himself dejectedly into a seat. The thief ____ a glance beside him. The mischievous boy ____ a stone through the window. They ____ some of the cargo overboard to lighten the boat. The eager fisherman ____ the fly for the trout. The untidy fellow ____ the towel in a corner.

<Whip, chastise, castigate, flagellate, scourge, lash, trounce, thrash, flog, maul, drub, switch, spank, bastinado.> (This group limits the field of the _Punish_ group in Exercise A, and extends the list of synonyms.)

_Sentences_: The drunken driver ____ the excited horses. The zealot was accustomed to ____ himself. The ruler bade that the Christians be ____. The teacher ____ the small children gently, but he unsparingly ____ the big ones. "My father hath ____ you with whips, but I will ____ you with scorpions." The bully was always ____ men smaller than himself till one of them turned on him and ____ him thoroughly.

<Wicked, sinful, felonious, illegal, immoral, heinous, flagitious, iniquitous, criminal, vicious, vile.>

_Sentences_: "I am fled From this ____ world, with ____ worms to dwell." A[n] ____ assault. "The ____ prize itself Buys out the law." It was, though not a[n] ____ act, a most ____ one. "There the ____ cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest."

<Young, youthful, boyish, girlish, juvenile, puerile, immature, callow, adolescent.>

_Sentences_: The plan had all the faults of ____ judgment. Many great authors have written books of ____ fiction. The bird, which was still ____, was of course unable to fly. "Such sights as ____ poets dream On summer eves by haunted stream." He was in that ____ stage of development when one is neither a boy nor a man. "I was so ____, I loved him so, I had No mother, God forgot me, and I fell." He made a[n] ____ attempt to impress them with his importance. "Bacchus ever fair, and ever ____." A red necktie gave him a more ____ appearance. The self-satisfied air of a[n] ____ youth is often trying to his elders.

EXERCISE D

In this exercise each group of synonyms is followed by quotations from authoritative writers in which the words are discriminatingly employed. Find the meaning of each italicized word in these quotations, and differentiate the word accurately from the others in that group. Substitute for it other words from the group, and observe precisely how the meaning is affected.

(So many of the quotations are from poetry that these will be printed as verse rather than, as in the preceding exercises, in continuous lines like prose.)

<Affront, insult, indignity.>

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man Will not _affront_ me,--and no other can. An old _affront_ will stir the heart Through years of rankling pain.

The way to procure _insults_ is to submit to them. A man meets with no more respect than he exacts.

It is often better not to see an _insult_ than to avenge it.

Even a hare, the weakest of animals, may _insult_ a dead lion.

To a native of rank, arrest was not merely a restraint, but a foul personal _indignity_.

<Dishonor, disgrace, ignominy, infamy, obloquy, opprobrium>.

His honor rooted in _dishonor_ stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

It is hard to say which of the two we ought most to lament,--the unhappy man who sinks under the sense of his _dishonor_, or him who survives it.

Could he with reason murmur at his case Himself sole author of his own _disgrace_?

Whatever _disgrace_ we may have deserved, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our character.

When in _disgrace_ with fortune and men's eyes I all alone beweep my outcast state.

Their generals have been received with honor after their defeat; yours with _ignominy_ after conquest.

Wilful perpetuations of unworthy actions brand with most indelible characters of _infamy_ the name and memory to posterity.

And when his long public life, so singularly chequered with good and evil, with glory and _obloquy_, had at length closed forever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to die.

Great _opprobrium_ has been thrown on her name.

<Fame, honor, renown, glory, distinction, reputation, repute, celebrity, eminence, notoriety>.

Let _fame_, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs.

Men have a solicitude about _fame_; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.

_Fame_ is no plant that grows on mortal soil, . . . . . . . . But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes And perfect witness of all-judging Jove; As he pronounces lastly on each deed, Of so much _fame_ in heaven expect thy meed.

When faith is lost, when _honor_ dies, The man is dead.

Act well your part; there all the _honor_ lies.

The Athenians erected a large statue of Aesop, and placed him, though a slave, on a lasting pedestal, to show that the way to _honor_ lies open indifferently to all.

I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not _honor_ more.

That nation is worthless which does not joyfully stake everything on her _honor_.

By heaven methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright _honor_ from the pale-fac'd moon.

That merit which gives greatness and _renown_ diffuses its influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breast.

Speak no more of his _renown_, Lay your earthly fancies down, And in the vast cathedral leave him, God accept him, Christ receive him.

The young warrior did not fly; but met death as he went forward in his strength. Happy are they who dies in youth, when their _renown_ is heard!

The paths of _glory_ lead but to the grave.

_Glory_ long has made the sages smile; 'tis something, nothing, words, illusion, wind.

Not once or twice in our rough island-story The path of duty was the way to _glory_.

He was a charming fellow, clever, urbane, free-handed, with all that fortunate quality in his appearance which is known as _distinction._

Never get a _reputation_ for a small perfection if you are trying for _fame_ in a loftier area.

One may be better than his _reputation_ or his conduct, but never better than his principles.

I see my _reputation_ is at stake My _fame_ is shrewdly gor'd.

CASSIO. _Reputation, reputation, reputation!_ O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! IAGO. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily wound.

You have a good _repute_ for gentleness and wisdom. _Celebrity_ sells dearly what we think she gives.

Kings climb to _eminence_ Over men's graves.

_Notoriety_ is short-lived; _fame_ is lasting.

<Hatred, hate, animosity, ill-will, enmity, hostility, bitterness, malice, malevolence, malignity, rancor, resentment, dudgeon, grudge, spite>.

The _hatred_ we bear our enemies injures their happiness less than our own.

_Hate_ is like fire; it makes even light rubbish deadly.

He generously forgot all feeling of _animosity_, and determined to go in person to his succor.

That thereby he may gather The ground of your _ill-will_, and so remove it.

No place is so propitious to the formation either of close friendships or of deadly _enmities_ as an Indiaman.

There need be no _hostility_ between evolutionist and theologian.

Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks, His fits, his frenzy, and his _bitterness?_

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in _malice_.

Every obstacle which partisan _malevolence_ could create he has had to encounter.

His flight is occasioned rather by the _malignity_ of his countrymen than by the enmity of the Egyptians.

Where the soul sours, and gradual _rancor_ grows, Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day.

Peace in their mouthes, and all _rancor_ and vengeance in their hartes [hearts].

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; Put _rancors_ in the vessel of my peace Only for them.

Her _resentment_ against the king seems not to have abated.

Mrs. W. was in high _dudgeon_; her heels clattered on the red-tiled floor, and she whisked about the house like a parched pea upon a drum-head.

If I can catch him once upon the hip, I will feed fat the ancient _grudge_ I bear him.

Men of this character pursue a _grudge_ unceasingly, and never forget or forgive.

And since you ne'er provoked their _spite_, Depend upon't their judgment's right.

<Marriage, matrimony, wedlock>. (With this group compare the _matrimonial_ group in Exercise C, above.)

_Marriages_ are made in heaven.

Hasty _marriage_ seldom proveth well.

A man finds himself seven years older the day after his _marriage_.

Let me not to the _marriage_ of true minds Admit impediments.

_Marriage_ is the best state for man in general; and every man is a worse man in proportion as he is unfit for the married state.

_Matrimony_--the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented.

_Wedlock's_ a lane where there is no turning.

What is _wedlock_ forced, but a hell, An age of discord and continual strife?

<Mercy, clemency, lenity, leniency, lenience, forbearance>.

Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the fault I see; That _mercy_ I to others show, That _mercy_ show to me.

The quality of _mercy_ is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes; * * * * * And earthly power doth then show likest God's When _mercy_ seasons justice.

_Clemency_ is the surest proof of a true monarch.

_Lenity_ will operate with greater force, in some instances, than vigor.

All the fellows tried to persuade the Master to greater _leniency_, but in vain.

It will be necessary that this acceptance should be followed up by measures of the utmost _lenience_.

There is however a limit at which _forbearance_ ceases to be a virtue.

<Pity, sympathy, compassion, commiseration, condolence>.

Careless their merits or their faults to scan, His _pity_ gave ere charity began.

For _pity_ melts the mind to love.

For _pitee_ renneth [runneth] soon in gentle herte [heart].

Our _sympathy_ is cold to the relation of distant misery.

Man may dismiss _compassion_ from his heart, but God will never.

It is unworthy a religious man to view an irreligious one either with alarm or aversion; or with any other feeling than regret, and hope, and brotherly _commiseration_.

Their congratulations and their _condolences_ are equally words of course.

<Poverty, want, need, destitution, indigence, penury>.

Is there for honest _poverty_ That hings [hangs] his head, and a' that?

Not to be able to bear _poverty_ is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.

Stitch! stitch! stitch! In _poverty_, hunger, and dirt, And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, Would that its tone could reach the Rich, She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"

_Poverty_ is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.

_Want_ is a bitter and hateful good, Because its virtues are not understood; Yet many things, impossible to thought, Have been by _need_ to full perfection brought.

Hundreds would never have known _want_ if they had not first known waste.

O! reason not the _need_; our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous: Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life is cheap as beast's.

The Christian inhabitants of Thessaly would be reduced to _destitution_.

It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their _indigence_ from the rest.

Chill _penury_ repress'd their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.

Chill _penury_ weighs down the heart itself; and though it sometimes be endured with calmness, it is but the calmness of despair.

Where _penury_ is felt the thought is chain'd, And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.

<Regret, compunction, remorse, contrition, penitence, repentance>.

_Regrets_ over the past should chasten the future.

He acknowledged his disloyalty to the king with expressions of great _compunction_.

Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong _compunction_ in me wrought, I supplicate for thy control.

God speaks to our hearts through the voice of _remorse_.

To err is human; but _contrition_ felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.

Christian _penitence_ is something more than a thought or an emotion or a tear; it is action.

_Repentance_ must be something more than mere _remorse_ for sins; it comprehends a change of nature befitting heaven.

<Stubborn, obstinate, pertinacious, intractable, refractory, contumacious>.

For fools are _stubborn_ in their way, As coins are harden'd by th' allay; And _obstinacy's_ ne'er so stiff As when 'tis in a wrong belief.

They may also laugh at their _pertinacious_ and incurable obstinacy.

He who is _intractable_, he whom nothing can persuade, may boast himself invincible.

There is a law in each well-order'd nation To curb those raging appetites that are Most disobedient and _refractory_.

He then dissolved Parliament, and sent its most _refractory_ members to the Tower.

If he were _contumacious_, he might be excommunicated, or, in other words, be deprived of all civil rights and imprisoned for life.

EXERCISE E

The following list of synonyms is given for the convenience of those who wish additional material with which to work. This is a selected list and makes no pretense to completeness. It is suggested that you discriminate the words within each of the following groups, and use each word accurately in a sentence of your own making.

Abettor, accessory, accomplice, confederate, conspirator. Acknowledge, admit, confess, own, avow.

## Active, agile, nimble, brisk, sprightly, spry, bustling.

Advise, counsel, admonish, caution, warn. Affecting, moving, touching, pathetic. Agnostic, skeptic, infidel, unbeliever, disbeliever. Amuse, entertain, divert. Announce, proclaim, promulgate, report, advertise, publish, bruit, blazon, trumpet, herald. Antipathy, aversion, repugnance, disgust, loathing. Artifice, ruse, trick, dodge, manoeuver, wile, stratagem, subterfuge, finesse. Ascend, mount, climb, scale. Associate, colleague, partner, helper, collaborator, coadjutor, companion, helpmate, mate, team-mate, comrade, chum, crony, consort, accomplice, confederate. Attach, affix, annex, append, subjoin. Attack, assail, assault, invade, beset, besiege, bombard, cannonade, storm.

Begin, commence, inaugurate, initiate, institute, originate, start, found. Belief, faith, persuasion, conviction, tenet, creed. Belittle, decry, depreciate, disparage. Bind, secure, fetter, shackle, gyve. Bit, jot, mite, particle, grain, atom, speck, mote, whit, iota, tittle, scintilla. Bluff, blunt, outspoken, downright, brusk, curt, crusty. Boast, brag, vaunt, vapor, gasconade. Body, corpse, remains, relics, carcass, cadaver, corpus. Bombastic, sophomoric, turgid, tumid, grandiose, grandiloquent, magniloquent. Boorish, churlish, loutish, clownish, rustic, ill-bred. Booty, plunder, loot, spoil. Brittle, frangible, friable, fragile, crisp. Building, edifice, structure, house.

Call, clamor, roar, scream, shout, shriek, vociferate, yell, halloo, whoop. Calm, still, motionless, tranquil, serene, placid. Care, concern, solicitude, anxiety. Celebrate, commemorate, observe. Charm, amulet, talisman. Charm, enchant, fascinate, captivate, enrapture, bewitch, infatuate, enamor. Cheat, defraud, swindle, dupe. Choke, strangle, suffocate, stifle, throttle. Choose, pick, select, cull, elect. Coax, wheedle, cajole, tweedle, persuade, inveigle. Color, hue, shade, tint, tinge, tincture. Combine, unite, consolidate, merge, amalgamate, weld, incorporate, confederate. Comfort, console, solace. Complain, grumble, growl, murmur, repine, whine, croak. Confirmed, habitual, inveterate, chronic. Connect, join, link, couple, attach, unite. Continual, continuous, unceasing, incessant, endless, uninterrupted, unremitting, constant, perpetual, perennial. Contract, agreement, bargain, compact, covenant, stipulation. Copy, duplicate, counterpart, likeness, reproduction, replica, facsimile. Corrupt, depraved, perverted, vitiated. Costly, expensive, dear. Coterie, clique, cabal, circle, set, faction, party. Critical, judicial, impartial, carping, caviling, captious, censorious. Crooked, awry, askew. Cross, fretful, peevish, petulant, pettish, irritable, irascible, angry. Crowd, throng, horde, host, mass, multitude, press, jam, concourse. Curious, inquisitive, prying, meddlesome.

Dainty, delicate, exquisite, choice, rare. Danger, peril, jeopardy, hazard, risk. Darken, obscure, bedim, obfuscate. Dead, lifeless, inanimate, deceased, defunct, extinct. Decay, decompose, putrefy, rot, spoil. Deceit, deception, double-dealing, duplicity, chicanery, guile, treachery. Deceptive, deceitful, misleading, fallacious, fraudulent. Decorate, adorn, ornament, embellish, deck, bedeck, garnish, bedizen, beautify. Decorous, demure, sedate, sober, staid, prim, proper. Deface, disfigure, mar, mutilate. Defect, fault, imperfection, disfigurement, blemish, flaw. Delay, defer, postpone, procrastinate. Demoralize, deprave, debase, corrupt, vitiate. Deportment, demeanor, bearing, port, mien. Deprive, divest, dispossess, strip, despoil. Despise, contemn, scorn, disdain. Despondency, despair, desperation. Detach, separate, sunder, sever, disconnect, disjoin, disunite. Determined, persistent, dogged. Devout, religious, pious, godly, saintly. Difficulty, hindrance, obstacle, impediment, encumbrance, handicap. Difficulty, predicament, perplexity, plight, quandary, dilemma, strait. Dirty, filthy, foul, nasty, squalid. Discernment, perception, penetration, insight, acumen. Disgraceful, dishonorable, shameful, disreputable, ignominious, opprobrious, scandalous, infamous. Disgusting, sickening, repulsive, revolting, loathsome, repugnant, abhorrent, noisome, fulsome. Dispel, disperse, dissipate, scatter. Dissatisfied, discontented, displeased, malcontent, disgruntled. Divide, distribute, apportion, allot, allocate, partition. Doctrine, dogma, tenet, precept. Dream, reverie, vision, fantasy. Drip, dribble, trickle. Drunk, drunken, intoxicated, inebriated. Dry, arid, parched, desiccated.

Eat, bolt, gulp, gorge, devour. Encroach, infringe, intrench, trench, intrude, invade, trespass. End, conclude, terminate, finish, discontinue, close. Enemy, foe, adversary, opponent, antagonist, rival. Enough, adequate, sufficient. Entice, inveigle, allure, lure, decoy, seduce. Erase, expunge, cancel, efface, obliterate. Error, mistake, blunder, slip. Estimate, value, appreciate. Eternal, everlasting, endless, deathless, imperishable, immortal. Examination, inquiry, inquisition, investigation, inspection, scrutiny, research, review, audit, inquest, autopsy. Example, sample, specimen, instance. Exceed, excel, surpass, transcend, outdo. Expand, dilate, distend, inflate. Expel, banish, exile, proscribe, ostracize. Experiment, trial, test. Explicit, exact, precise, definite.

Faculty, gift, endowment, aptitude, attribute, talent, predilection, bent. Failing, shortcoming, defect, fault, foible, infirmity. Famous, renowned, celebrated, noted, distinguished, eminent, illustrious. Fashion, mode, style, vogue, rage, fad. Fast, rapid, swift, quick, fleet, speedy, hasty, celeritous, expeditious, instantaneous. Fasten, tie, hitch, moor, tether. Fate, destiny, lot, doom. Fawn, truckle, cringe, crouch. Feign, pretend, dissemble, simulate, counterfeit, affect, assume. Fiendish, devilish, diabolical, demoniacal, demonic, satanic. Fertile, fecund, fruitful, prolific. Fit, suitable, appropriate, proper. Flame, blaze, flare, glare, glow. Flat, level, even, plane, smooth, horizontal. Flatter, blandish, beguile, compliment, praise. Flexible, pliable, pliant, supple, limber, lithe, lissom. Flit, flutter, flicker, hover. Flock, herd, bevy, covey, drove, pack, brood, litter, school. Flow, pour, stream, gush, spout. Follow, pursue, chase. Follower, adherent, disciple, partisan, henchman. Fond, loving, doting, devoted, amorous, enamored. Force, strength, power, energy, vigor, might, potency, cogency, efficacy. Force, compulsion, coercion, constraint, restraint. Free, liberate, emancipate, manumit, release, disengage, disentangle, disembarrass, disencumber, extricate. Freshen, refresh, revive, renovate, renew. Friendly, amicable, companionable, hearty, cordial, neighborly, sociable, genial, complaisant, affable. Frighten, affright, alarm, terrify, terrorize, dismay, appal, daunt, scare. Frown, scowl, glower, lower. Frugal, sparing, saving, economical, chary, thrifty, provident, prudent.

Game, play, amusement, pastime, diversion, fun, sport, entertainment. Gather, accumulate, amass, collect, levy, muster, hoard. Ghost, spirit, specter, phantom, apparition, shade, phantasm. Gift, present, donation, grant, gratuity, bequest, boon, bounty, largess, fee, bribe. Grand, magnificent, gorgeous, splendid, superb, sublime. Greet, hail, salute, address, accost. Grief, sorrow, distress, affliction, trouble, tribulation, woe. Grieve, lament, mourn, bemoan, bewail, deplore, rue. Guard, defend, protect, shield, shelter, screen, preserve.

Habitation, abode, dwelling, residence, domicile, home. Harmful, injurious, detrimental, pernicious, deleterious, baneful, noxious. Have, possess, own, hold. Headstrong, wayward, wilful, perverse, froward. Help (noun), aid, assistance, succor. Help (verb), assist, aid, succor, abet, second, support, befriend. Hesitate, falter, vacillate, waver. Hide, conceal, secrete. High, tall, lofty, elevated, towering. Hint, intimate, insinuate. Hopeful, expectant, sanguine, optimistic, confident. Hopeless, despairing, disconsolate, desperate. Holy, sacred, hallowed, sanctified, consecrated, godly, pious, saintly, blessed.

Impolite, discourteous, inurbane, uncivil, rude, disrespectful, pert, saucy, impertinent, impudent, insolent. Importance, consequence, moment. Impostor, pretender, charlatan, masquerader, mountebank, deceiver, humbug, cheat, quack, shyster, empiric. Imprison, incarcerate, immure. Improper, indecent, indecorous, unseemly, unbecoming, indelicate. Impure, tainted, contaminated, polluted, defiled, vitiated. Inborn, innate, inbred, congenital. Incite, instigate, stimulate, impel, arouse, goad, spur, promote. Inclose, surround, encircle, circumscribe, encompass. Increase, grow, enlarge, magnify, amplify, swell, augment. Indecent, indelicate, immodest, shameless, ribald, lewd, lustful, lascivious, libidinous, obscene. Insane, demented, deranged, crazy, mad. Insanity, dementia, derangement, craziness, madness, lunacy, mania, frenzy, hallucination. Insipid, tasteless, flat, vapid. Intention, intent, purpose, plan, design, aim, object, end. Interpose, intervene, intercede, interfere, mediate. Irreligious, ungodly, impious, godless, sacrilegious, blasphemous, profane. Irritate, exasperate, nettle, incense.

Join, connect, unite, couple, combine, link, annex, append.

Kindle, ignite, inflame, rouse.

Lack, want, need, deficiency, dearth, paucity, scarcity, deficit. Lame, crippled, halt, deformed, maimed, disabled. Large, great, big, huge, immense, colossal, gigantic, extensive, vast, massive, unwieldy, bulky. Laughable, comical, comic, farcical, ludicrous, ridiculous, funny, droll. Lead, guide, conduct, escort, convoy. Lengthen, prolong, protract, extend. Lessen, decrease, diminish, reduce, abate, curtail, moderate, mitigate, palliate. Lie (noun), untruth, falsehood, falsity, fiction, fabrication, mendacity, canard, fib, story. Lie (verb), prevaricate, falsify, equivocate, quibble, shuffle, dodge, fence, fib. Likeness, resemblance, similitude, similarity, semblance, analogy. Limp, flaccid, flabby, flimsy. List, roll, catalogue, register, roster, schedule, inventory. Loud, resonant, clarion, stentorian, sonorous. Low, base, abject, servile, slavish, menial. Loyal, faithful, true, constant, staunch, unwavering, steadfast. Lurk, skulk, slink, sneak, prowl.

Make, create, frame, fashion, mold, shape, form, forge, fabricate, invent, construct, manufacture, concoct. Manifest, plain, obvious, clear, apparent, patent, evident, perceptible, noticeable, open, overt, palpable, tangible, indubitable, unmistakable. Many, various, numerous, divers, manifold, multitudinous, myriad, countless, innumerable. Meaning, significance, signification, import, purport. Meet, encounter, collide, confront, converge. Meeting, assembly, assemblage, congregation, convention, conference, concourse, gathering, mustering. Melt, thaw, fuse, dissolve, liquefy. Memory, remembrance, recollection, reminiscence, retrospection. Misrepresent, misinterpret, falsify, distort, warp. Mix, compound, amalgamate, weld, combine, blend, concoct. Model, pattern, prototype, criterion, standard, exemplar, paragon, archetype, ideal. Motive, incentive, inducement, desire, purpose. Move, actuate, impel, prompt, incite.

Near, nigh, close, neighboring, adjacent, contiguous. Neat, tidy, orderly, spruce, trim, prim. Needful, necessary, requisite, essential, indispensable. Negligence, neglect, inattention, inattentiveness, inadvertence, remissness, oversight. New, novel, fresh, recent, modern, late, innovative, unprecedented. Nice, fastidious, dainty, finical, squeamish. Noisy, clamorous, boisterous, hilarious, turbulent, riotous, obstreperous, uproarious, vociferous, blatant, brawling. Noticeable, prominent, conspicuous, salient, signal.

Order (noun), command, mandate, behest, injunction, decree. Order (verb), command, enjoin, direct, instruct. Oversight, supervision, direction, superintendence, surveillance.

Pale, pallid, wan, colorless, blanched, ghastly, ashen, cadaverous. Patience, forbearance, resignation, longsuffering. Penetrate, pierce, perforate. Place, office, post, position, situation, appointment. Plan, design, project, scheme, plot. Playful, mischievous, roguish, prankish, sportive, arch. Plentiful, plenteous, abundant, bounteous, copious, profuse, exuberant, luxuriant. Plunder, rifle, loot, sack, pillage, devastate, despoil. Pretty, beautiful, comely, handsome, fair. Profitable, remunerative, lucrative, gainful. Prompt, punctual, ready, expeditious. Pull, draw, drag, haul, tug, tow. Push, shove, thrust. Puzzle, perplex, mystify, bewilder.

Queer, odd, curious, quaint, ridiculous, singular, unique, bizarre, fantastic, grotesque.

Rash, incautious, reckless, foolhardy, adventurous, venturous, venturesome. Rebellion, insurrection, revolt, mutiny, riot, revolution, sedition. Recover, regain, retrieve, recoup, rally, recuperate. Reflect, deliberate, ponder, muse, meditate, ruminate. Relate, recount, recite, narrate, tell. Replace, supersede, supplant, succeed. Repulsive, unsightly, loathsome, hideous, grewsome. Requital, retaliation, reprisal, revenge, vengeance, retribution. Responsible, answerable, accountable, amenable, liable. Reveal, disclose, divulge, manifest, show, betray. Reverence, veneration, awe, adoration, worship. Ridicule, deride, mock, taunt, flout, twit, tease. Ripe, mature, mellow. Rise, arise, mount, ascend. Rogue, knave, rascal, miscreant, scamp, sharper, villain. Round, circular, rotund, spherical, globular, orbicular. Rub, polish, burnish, furbish, scour.

Sad, grave, sober, moody, doleful, downcast, dreary, woeful, somber, unhappy, woebegone, mournful, depressed, despondent, gloomy, melancholy, heavy-spirited, sorrowful, dismal, dejected, disconsolate, miserable, lugubrious. Satiate, sate, surfeit, cloy, glut, gorge. Scoff, jeer, gibe, fleer, sneer, mock, taunt. Secret, covert, surreptitious, furtive, clandestine, underhand, stealthy. Seep, ooze, infiltrate, percolate, transude, exude. Sell, barter, vend, trade. Shape, form, figure, outline, conformation, configuration, contour, profile. Share, partake, participate, divide. Sharp, keen, acute, cutting, trenchant, incisive. Shore, coast, littoral, beach, strand, bank. Shorten, abridge, abbreviate, curtail, truncate, syncopate. Show (noun), display, ostentation, parade, pomp, splurge. Show, exhibit, display, expose, manifest, evince. Shrink, flinch, wince, blench, quail. Shun, avoid, eschew. Shy, bashful, diffident, modest, coy, timid, shrinking. Sign, omen, auspice, portent, prognostic, augury, foretoken, adumbration, presage, indication. Simple, innocent, artless, unsophisticated, naive. Skilful, skilled, expert, adept, apt, proficient, adroit, dexterous, deft, clever, ingenious. Skin, hide, pelt, fell. Sleepy, drowsy, slumberous, somnolent, sluggish, torpid, dull, lethargic. Slovenly, slatternly, dowdy, frowsy, blowzy. Sly, crafty, cunning, subtle, wily, artful, politic, designing. Smile, smirk, grin. Solitary, lonely, lone, lonesome, desolate, deserted, uninhabited. Sour, acid, tart, acrid, acidulous, acetose, acerbitous, astringent. Speech, discourse, oration, address, sermon, declamation, dissertation, exhortation, disquisition, harangue, diatribe, tirade, screed, philippic, invective, rhapsody, plea. Spruce, natty, dapper, smart, chic. Stale, musty, frowzy, mildewed, fetid, rancid, rank. Steep, precipitous, abrupt. Stingy, close, miserly, niggardly, parsimonious, penurious, sordid, Storm, tempest, whirlwind, hurricane, tornado, cyclone, typhoon Straight, perpendicular, vertical, plumb, erect, upright. Strange, singular, peculiar, odd, queer, quaint, outlandish. Strong, stout, robust, sturdy, stalwart, powerful. Stupid, dull, obtuse, stolid, doltish, sluggish, brainless, bovine. Succeed, prosper, thrive, flourish, triumph. Succession, sequence, series. Supernatural, preternatural, superhuman, miraculous. Suppose, surmise, conjecture, presume, imagine, fancy, guess, think, believe. Surprise, astonish, amaze, astound. Swearing, cursing, profanity, blasphemy, execration, imprecation.

Teach, instruct, educate, train, discipline, drill, inculcate, instil, indoctrinate. Thoughtful, contemplative, meditative, reflective, pensive, wistful. Tire, weary, fatigue, exhaust, jade, fag. Tool, implement, instrument, utensil. Trifle, dally, dawdle, potter. Try, endeavor, essay, attempt. Trust, confidence, reliance, assurance, faith. Turn, revolve, rotate, spin, whirl, gyrate.

Ugly, homely, uncomely, hideous. Unwilling, reluctant, disinclined, loath, averse.

Watchful, vigilant, alert. Wave (noun), billow, breaker, swell, ripple, undulation. Wave (verb), brandish, flourish, flaunt, wigwag. Weariness, languor, lassitude, enervation, exhaustion. Wearisome, tiresome, irksome, tedious, humdrum. Wet (adjective), humid, moist, damp, dank, sodden, soggy. Wet (verb), moisten, dampen, soak, imbrue, saturate, drench Whim, caprice, vagary, fancy, freak, whimsey, crotchet. Wind, breeze, gust, blast, flaw, gale, squall, flurry. Wind, coil, twist, twine, wreathe. Winding, tortuous, serpentine, sinuous, meandering. Wonderful, marvelous, phenomenal, miraculous. Workman, laborer, artisan, artificer, mechanic, craftsman. Write, inscribe, scribble, scrawl, scratch.

Yearn, long, hanker, pine, crave.

EXERCISE F

Write three synonyms for each of the following words. Discriminate the three, and embody each of them in a sentence.

Accomplish Conduct (noun) Humble Scream Agree Conspicuous Indifferent Shrewd Anger Cringe Misfortune Shudder Attempt Difficult Obey Skill Big Disconnect Object (noun) Soft Brute Erratic Object (verb) Splash Business Flash Obligation Success Careless Fragrant Occupied Sweet Climb Gain Oppose Trick Collect Generous Persist Wash Commanding Grim Revise Worship Compel Groan Room

EXERCISE G

Supply eight or ten intervening words between each of the following pairs. Arrange the intervening words in an ascending scale.

Dark, bright Wet, dry Savage, civilized Beautiful, ugly Friend, enemy Hope, despair Wise, foolish Love, hate Enormous, minute Admirable, abominable Curse, bless Pride, humility

MANY-SIDED WORDS

In Chapter VII you made a study of printed distinctions between synonyms. In Chapter VIII you were given lists of synonyms and made the distinctions yourself. Near the close of