Page:Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1894).djvu/28

xxii There exist comparatively few words of a general character to which no correlative term, either of negation or of opposition, can be assigned, and which therefore require no corresponding second column. The correlative idea, especially that which constitutes a sense negative to the primary one, may, indeed, be formed or conceived ; but, from its occurring rarely, no word has been framed to represent it ; for, in language, as in other matters, the supply fails when there is no probability of a demand. Occasionally we find this deficiency provided for by the contrivance of prefixing the syllable non ; as, for instance, the negatives of existence, performance, payment, &c., are expressed by the compound words, nooi-existence, non-performance, non-payment, &c. Functions of a similar kind are performed by the prefixes dis-, anti-, contra-, mis-, in-, and un-. With respect to all these, and especially the last, great latitude is allowed according to the necessities of the case ; a latitude which is limited only by the taste and discretion of the writer. On the other hand, it is hardly possible to find two words having in all respects the same meaning, and being therefore interchange- able ; that is, admitting of being employed indiscriminately, the one or the other, in all their applications. The investigation of the distinctions to be drawn between words apparently synonymous, forms a separate branch of inquiry, which I have not presumed here to enter upon ; for the subject has already occupied the attention of much abler critics than myself, and its complete exhaustion would require the devotion of a whole life. The purpose of this Work, it must be borne in mind, is, not to explain the signification of words, but simply to classify and arrange them according to the sense in which they are now used, and which I presume to be already known to the reader. I enter into no inquiry into the changes of meaning they may have undergone in the course of time. I am content to