namely, the appropriateness of the examples; the classic purity of the author; the justness of the sentiment; and, last of all, the variety of the writers. But I am persuaded that the reader will not be dissatisfied to find that I have shown a decided preference to such authors as Addison, Johnson, Dryden, Pope, Milton, etc. At the same time it is but just to observe that this selection of authorities has been made by an actual perusal of the authors, without the assistance of Johnson's "Dictionary." For the sentiments scattered through this work I offer no apology, although I am aware that they will not fall in with the views of many who may be competent to decide on its literary merits. I write not to please or displease any description of persons; but I trust that what I have written according to the dictates of my mind will meet the approbation of those whose good opinion I am most solicitous to obtain. Should any object to the introduction of morality in a work of science, I beg them to consider that a writer whose business it was to mark the nice shades of distinction between words closely allied could not do justice to his subject without entering into all the relations of society, and showing, from the acknowledged sense of many moral and religious terms, what has been the general sense of mankind on many of the most important questions which have agitated the world. My first object certainly has been to assist the philological inquirer in ascertaining the force and comprehension of the English language; yet I should have thought my work but half completed had I made it a mere register of verbal distinctions. While others scize every opportunity unblushingly to avow and zealously to propagate opinions destructive of good order, it would ill become any individual of contrary sentiments to shrink from stating his convictions when called upon, as he seems to be, by an occasion like that which has now offered itself. As to the rest, I throw myself on the indulgence of the public, with the assurance that, having used every endeavor to deserve their approbation, I shall not make an appeal to their candor in vain. ENGLISH SYNONYMES EXPLAINED. TO ABANDON, DESERT, FORSAKE, RE LINQUISH. THE idea of leaving or separating one's self from an object is common to these terms, which vary in the circumstances of the action; the two former are more positive acts than the two latter. To ABANDON, from the German ban, a proclamation of outlawry, signifying to put out of the protection of the law; or, a privative, and bandum, an ensign, i. e., to cast off, or leave one's colors; is to leave thoroughly, to withdraw protection or support. To DESERT, in Latin desertus, from de privative, and sero, to sow; signifying to leave off sowing or cultivating; and FORSAKE, compounded of the privative for and sake or seek, signifying to leave off seeking, are partial modes of leaving; the former by withholding one's co-operation, the latter by withdrawing one's society. Abandoning is a violation of the most sacred ties, and exposes the object to every misery; desertion is a breach of honor and fidelity; it deprives a person of the assistance or the countenance which he has a right to expect; by forsaking, the kindly feelings are hurt, and the social ties are broken. A bad mother abandons her offspring; a soldier deserts his comrades; a man forsakes his compan ions. Things as well as persons may be abandoned, deserted, or forsaken; things only are relinquished. To abandon may be an act of necessity or discretion, as a captain abandons a vessel when it is no longer safe to remain in it. Desertion is often a dereliction of duty, as to desert one's post; and often an indifferent action, particularly in the sense of leaving any place which has had one's care and attention bestowed upon it, as people desert a village, or any particular country where they have been established. Forsaking is an indifferent action, and implies simply the leaving something to which one has been attached in one form or another; a person forsakes a certain house which he has been accustomed to frequent; birds forsake their nests when they find them to have been discovered. To RELINQUISH is an act of prudence or imprudence; men often inadvertently relinquish the fairest prospects in order to follow some favorite scheme which terminates in their ruin. If he hides it privately in the earth or other secret place, and it is discovered, the finder acquires no property therein, for the owner hath not by this act declared any intention to abandon it. BLACKSTONE. We may desert or forsake a place, but MILTON, the former comprehends more than the latter; a place that is deserted is left by | nounce that which may be in our posses all, and left entirely, as described in sion only by an act of violence; a usurper cannot be said properly to abandon his The Deserted Village. GOLDSMITH. A place may be forsaken by individu- people or abdicate a throne, but he may resign his power or renounce his pretensions to a throne. als or to a partial extent. Macdonald and Macleod have lost many of its tenants and laborers, but Kaarsa has not yet been forsaken by its inhabitants. JOHNSON. TO ABANDON, RESIGN, RENOUNCE, Their temples, and abandon to the spoil Their own abodes. DRYDEN. It would be a good appendix to "the art of living and dying," if any one would write "the art of growing old," and teach men to resign their pretensions to the pleasures of youth. STEELE. For ministers to be silent in the cause of Christ SOUTH. THE idea of giving up is common to these terms, which signification, though analogous to the former, admits, howev- is to renounce it, and to fly is to desert it. er, of this distinction, that in the one case we separate ourselves from an object, in the other we send or cast it from us. ABANDON, v. To abandon, desert. RESIGN, from re and signo, signifies to sign away or back from one's self. RENOUNCE, in Latin renuncio, from nuncio, to tell or declare, is to declare off from a thing. ABDICATE, from ab, from, and dico, to speak, signifies like wise to call or cry off from a thing. Much gratitude is due to the Nine from their favored poets, and much hath been paid: for even to the present hour they are invoked and worshipped by the sons of verse, while all the other deities of Olympus have either abdicated their thrones, or been dismissed from them with CUMBERLAND. We abandon and resign by giving up to another; we renounce by sending away from ourselves; we abandon a thing by transferring it to another; in this manner a debtor abandons his goods to his creditors: we resign a thing by transferring our possession of it to another; in this manner we resign a place to a friend; we renounce a thing by simply ceasing to hold it; in this manner we renounce a claim or a profession. As to renounce signified originally to give up by word of mouth, and to resign to give up by signature, the former is consequently a less formal action than the latter; we may renounce by implication; we resign in direct terms; we renounce the pleasures of the world when we do not seek to enjoy them; we resign a pleasure, a profit, or advantage, of which we expressly give up the enjoyment. To abdicate is a species of informal resignation. A monarch abdicates his throne who simply declares his will to cease to reign; but a minister resigns his office when he gives up the seals by which he held it. We abandon nothing but that over which we have had an entire control; we abdicate nothing but that which we have held by a certain right, but we may resign or re contempt. To abandon and resign are likewise used in a reflective sense; the former in the bad sense, to denote the giving up the understanding to the passion, or the giving up one's self, mind, and body to bad practices; the latter in the good sense, to denote the giving up one's will and desires to one's circumstances or whatever is appointed. The soldiers of Hannibal abandoned themselves to pleasure at Capua. A patient man resigns himself to his fate, however severe that may be. Reason ever continues to accuse the business and injustice of the passions, and to disturb the repose of those who abandon themselves to their dominion. KENNETT. Pascal's Thoughts. it is not so complete a giving up of one's edge, and pleasures, constitute, as may be, three These three leading desires for honors, knowl three. TO ABASE, HUMBLE, DEGRADE, DIS- To ABASE expresses the strongest de- E ABASE 7 or make low, which is compounded of the | intensive syllable a or ad, and baisser, from bas, low, in Latin basis, the base, which is the lowest part of a column. It is at present used principally in the Scripture language, or in a metaphorical style, to imply the laying aside all the high pretensions which distinguish us from our fellow-creatures- the descending to a state comparatively low and mean. To HUMBLE, in French humilier, from the Latin humilis, humble, and humus, the ground, naturally marks a prostration to the ground, and figuratively a lowering of the thoughts and feelings. According to the principles of Christianity whoever abaseth himself shall be exalted, and according to the same principles whoever reflects on his own littleness and unworthiness will daily humble himself before his Maker. The abusement consists in the greatest possible dejection of spirit which, if marked by an outward act, will lead to the utmost prostration of the body; humbling, in comparison with abasement, is an ordinary sentiment and expressed in the ordinary way. Absorbed in that immensity I see, COWPER. My soul is justly humbled in the dust. ROWE. Abase and humble have regard to persons considered absolutely, degrade and disgrace to their relative situation. To DEGRADE (v. To disparage) signifies to lower in the estimation of others. It supposes a state of elevation either in outward circumstances or in public opinion. To DISGRACE, compounded of the privative dis and grace, or favor, properly implies to put out of favor, which is always attended with circumstances of more or less ignominy. To abase and humble one's self may be meritorious acts as suited to the infirmity and fallibility of human nature, but to degrade or disgrace one's self is always a culpable act. The penitent man humbles himself, the contrite man abases himself, the man of rank degrades himself by a too familiar deportment with his inferiors, he disgraces himself by his vices. The great and good man may also be abased and humbled without being degraded or disgraced; his glory follows him in his ABASE If the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children; if their spirits be abased and broken much by too strict a hand over them, they lose all their vigor and industry. LOCKE. To degrade has most regard to the external rank and condition, disgrace to the moral estimation and character. Whatever is low and mean is degrading for those who are not of mean condition; whatever is immoral is disgraceful to all, but most so to those who ought to know better. It is degrading to a nobleman to associate with prize-fighters and jockeys, it is disgraceful for him to countenance a violation of the laws which he is bound to protect. The higher the rank of the individual, the greater is his degradation; the higher his previous character, or the more sacred his office, the greater his disgrace if he act inconsistent with its duties. So deplorable is the degradation of our natures, that whereas before we were the image of God, we now only retain the image of men. SOUTH. And where the vales with violets once were crown'd, Now knotty burrs and thorns disgrace the ground. The great masters of composition know very well that many an elegant word becomes improper for a poet or an orator when it has been debased by common use. ADDISON. TO ABASH, CONFOUND, CONFUSE. ABASH is an intensive of abase, signifying to abase thoroughly in spirit. CONFOUND and CONFUSE are derived from different parts of the same Latin verb confundo and its participle confusus. Confundo is compounded of con and fundo, to pour together. To confound and confuse then signify properly to melt together or into one mass what ought to be distinct; and figuratively, as it is here taken, to derange the thoughts in such manner as that they seem melted together. signs and wonders, far above the reach They heard and were abash'd, and up they sprung MILTON. The various evils of disease and poverty, pain and sorrow, are frequently derived from others; but shame and confusion are supposed to proceed from ourselves, and to be incurred only by the misconduct which they furnish. HAWKESWORTH. TO ABATE, LESSEN, DIMINISH, DE- Abash expresses more than confound, and confound more than confuse. Abash has regard to the spirit which is greatly abased and lowered, confound has regard to the faculties which are benumbed and crippled; confuse has regard to the feelings and ideas which are deranged and perplexed. The haughty man is abashed when he is humbled in the eyes of oth-nified originally to beat down, in the acABATE, from the French abattre, sigers; the wicked man is confounded when his villany is suddenly detected; a modest person may be confused in the presence of his superiors. tive sense; to come down, in the neuter written, minish, from the Latin diminuo, sense. DIMINISH, or, as it is sometimes and minuo, to lessen, and minus, less, expresses, like the verb LESSEN, the sense of either making less or becoming less. DECREASE is compounded of the privative de and crease, in Latin cresco, to grow, signifying to grow less. Abate, lessen, and diminish, agree in the sense of becoming less and of making less; decrease implies only becoming less. Abate respects only vigor of action, and applies to that which is strong or violent, as a fever abates, pain, anger, etc., abates; lessen and diminish are applied to size, quantity, and number, but lessen is much seldomer used intransitively than dimin ish; things are rarely said to lessen of themselves, but to diminish. The passion of an angry man ought to be allowed to abate before any appeal is made to his understanding. Objects apparently di minish as they recede from the view. |