English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 17

_Anxiety_ is, according to its derivation, a choking _disquiet_, akin to _anguish_; _anxiety_ is mental; _anguish_ may be mental or physical; _anguish_ is in regard to the known, _anxiety_ in regard to the unknown; _anguish_ is because of what has happened, _anxiety_ because of what may happen. _Anxiety_ refers to some future event, always suggesting hopeful possibility, and thus differing from _apprehension_, _fear_, _dread_, _foreboding_, _terror_, all of which may be quite despairing. In matters within our reach, _anxiety_ always stirs the question whether something can not be done, and is thus a valuable spur to doing; in this respect it is allied to _care_. _Foreboding_, _dread_, etc., commonly incapacitate for all helpful thought or endeavor. _Worry_ is a more petty, restless, and manifest _anxiety_; _anxiety_ may be quiet and silent; _worry_ is communicated to all around. _Solicitude_ is a milder _anxiety_. _Fretting_ or _fretfulness_ is a weak complaining without thought of accomplishing or changing anything, but merely as a relief to one's own _disquiet_. _Perplexity_ often involves _anxiety_, but may be quite free from it. A student may be _perplexed_ regarding a translation, yet, if he has time enough, not at all anxious regarding it.

Antonyms:

apathy, calmness, confidence, light-heartedness, satisfaction, a.s.surance, carelessness, ease, nonchalance, tranquillity.

Prepositions:

Anxiety _for_ a friend's return; anxiety _about_, _in regard to_, or _concerning_ the future.

APATHY.

Synonyms:

calmness, indifference, quietness, stoicism, composure, insensibility, quietude, tranquillity, immobility, lethargy, sluggishness, unconcern, impa.s.sibility, phlegm, stillness, unfeelingness.

_Apathy_, according to its Greek derivation, is a simple absence of feeling or emotion. There are persons to whom a certain degree of _apathy_ is natural, an innate _sluggishness_ of the emotional nature.

In the _apathy_ of despair, a person gives up, without resistance or sensibility, to what he has fiercely struggled to avoid. While _apathy_ is want of feeling, _calmness_ is feeling without agitation. _Calmness_ is the result of strength, courage, or trust; _apathy_ is the result of dulness or weakness. _Composure_ is freedom from agitation or disturbance, resulting ordinarily from force of will, or from perfect confidence in one's own resources. _Impa.s.sibility_ is a philosophical term applied to the Deity, as infinitely exalted above all stir of pa.s.sion or emotion. _Unfeelingness_, the Saxon word that should be the exact equivalent of _apathy_, really means more, a lack of the feeling one ought to have, a censurable hardness of heart. _Indifference_ and _insensibility_ designate the absence of feeling toward certain persons or things; _apathy_, entire absence of feeling. _Indifference_ is a want of interest; _insensibility_ is a want of feeling; _unconcern_ has reference to consequences. We speak of _insensibility_ of heart, _immobility_ of countenance. _Stoicism_ is an intentional suppression of feeling and deadening of sensibilities, while _apathy_ is involuntary.

Compare CALM; REST; STUPOR.

Antonyms:

agitation, disturbance, feeling, sensibility, sympathy, alarm, eagerness, frenzy, sensitiveness, turbulence, anxiety, emotion, fury, storm, vehemence, care, excitement, pa.s.sion, susceptibility, violence.

distress,

Prepositions:

The apathy _of_ monastic life; apathy _toward_ good.

APIECE.

Synonyms:

distributively, each, individually, separately, severally.

There is no discernible difference in sense between so much _apiece_ and so much _each_; the former is the more common and popular, the latter the more elegant expression. _Distributively_ is generally used of numbers and abstract relations. _Individually_ emphasizes the independence of the individuals; _separately_ and _severally_ still more emphatically hold them apart. The signers of a note may become jointly and _severally_ responsible, that is, _each_ liable for the entire amount, as if he had signed it alone. Witnesses are often brought _separately_ into court, in order that no one may be influenced by the testimony of another. If a company of laborers demand a dollar _apiece_, that is a demand that _each_ shall receive that sum; if they _individually_ demand a dollar, _each_ individual makes the demand.

Antonyms:

acc.u.mulatively, confusedly, indiscriminately, together, unitedly.

collectively, _en ma.s.se_, synthetically,

APOLOGY.

Synonyms:

acknowledgment, defense, excuse, plea, confession, exculpation, justification, vindication.

All these words express one's answer to a charge of wrong or error that is or might be made. _Apology_ has undergone a remarkable change from its old sense of a valiant _defense_--as in Justin Martyr's _Apologies_ for the Christian faith--to its present meaning of humble _confession_ and concession. He who offers an _apology_ admits himself, at least technically and seemingly, in the wrong. An _apology_ is for what one has done or left undone; an _excuse_ may be for what one proposes to do or leave undone as well; as, one sends beforehand his _excuse_ for not accepting an invitation; if he should fail either to be present or to excuse himself, an _apology_ would be in order. An _excuse_ for a fault is an attempt at partial justification; as, one alleges haste as an _excuse_ for carelessness. _Confession_ is a full _acknowledgment_ of wrong, generally of a grave wrong, with or without _apology_ or _excuse_. _Plea_ ranges in sense from a prayer for favor or pardon to an attempt at full _vindication_. _Defense_, _exculpation_, _justification_, and _vindication_ are more properly antonyms than synonyms of _apology_ in its modern sense, and should be so given, but for their connection with its historic usage. Compare CONFESS; DEFENSE.

Antonyms:

accusation, charge, condemnation, injury, offense, censure, complaint, imputation, insult, wrong.

Prepositions:

An apology _to_ the guest _for_ the oversight would be fitting.

APPARENT.

Synonyms:

likely, presumable, probable, seeming.

The _apparent_ is that which appears; the word has two contrasted senses, either of that which is manifest, visible, certain, or of that which merely seems to be and may be very different from what is; as, the _apparent_ motion of the sun around the earth. _Apparent_ kindness casts a doubt on the reality of the kindness; _apparent_ neglect implies that more care and pains may have been bestowed than we are aware of.

_Presumable_ implies that a thing may be reasonably supposed beforehand without any full knowledge of the facts. _Probable_ implies that we know facts enough to make us moderately confident of it. _Seeming_ expresses great doubt of the reality; _seeming_ innocence comes very near in meaning to _probable_ guilt. _Apparent_ indicates less a.s.surance than _probable_, and more than _seeming_. A man's _probable_ intent we believe will prove to be his real intent; his _seeming_ intent we believe to be a sham; his _apparent_ intent may be the true one, tho we have not yet evidence on which to p.r.o.nounce with certainty or even with confidence. _Likely_ is a word with a wide range of usage, but always implying the belief that the thing is, or will be, true; it is often used with the infinitive, as the other words of this list can not be; as, it is _likely_ to happen. Compare EVIDENT.

Antonyms:

doubtful, dubious, improbable, unimaginable, unlikely.

Prepositions:

(When _apparent_ is used in the sense of evident): His guilt is apparent _in_ every act _to_ all observers.

APPEAR.