The Century Vocabulary Builder Part 18

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 cla.s.ses of medical pract.i.tioners; 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 ill.u.s.tration 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, lat.i.tude evolution, revolution oriental, occidental pathos, bathos sacred, profane military, civil clergy, laity capital, labor ingress, egress element, compound horizontal, perpendicular compet.i.tion, cooperation 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, stalact.i.te orthodox, heterodox h.o.m.ogeneous, 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 pa.s.s. Thus "He affects a fondness for cla.s.sical 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 n.o.ble 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 ill.u.s.trative sentences insert the word appropriate in meaning.