Page:Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1894).djvu/29

Rh accept them at the value of their present currency, and have no concern with their etymologies, or with the history of their trans- formations ; far less do I venture to thrid the mazes of the vast labyrinth into which I should be led by any attempt at a general discrimination of synonyms. The difficulties I have had to contend with have already been sufficiently great, without this addition to my labours.

The most cursory glance over the pages of a Dictionary will show that a great number of words are used in various senses, sometimes distinguished by slight shades of difference, but often diverging widely from their primary signification, and even, in some cases, bearing to it no perceptible relation. It may even happen that the very same word has two significations quite opposite to one another. This is the case with the verb to cleave, which means to adhere tenaciously, and also to separate iy a blow. To propugn sometimes expresses to attach ; at other times to defend. To let is to hinder, as well as to permit. To ravel means both to en- tangle and to disentangle. Shameful and shameless are nea.rly synony- mous. Priceless may either mesm invaluable or of no vahie. Nervous is used sometimes for strong, at other times for ivealc. The alphabetical Index at the end of this Work sufficiently shows the multiplicity of uses to which, by the elasticity of language, the meaning of words has been stretched, so as to adapt them to a great variety of modified significations in subservience to the nicer shades of thought, which, under peculiarity of circumstances, require corresponding expression. Words thus admitting of different meanings, have therefore to be arranged under each of the respective heads corresponding to these various acceptations. There are many words, again, which express ideas compounded of two elementary ideas belonging to different classes. It is therefore necessary to place these words respectively under each of the generic heads to which they relate. The necessity of these repetitions is increased by the circumstance, that ideas included under one class are often connected by relations of the same kind as the ideas which belong to another class. Thus we find the same relations of order and of quantity existing among the ideas of Time as well as those of Space. Sequence in the one is denoted by the same terms as sequence in the other; and the measures of time also express the measures of space. The cause and the effect are often designated by the same word. The word Sound, for instance, denotes both the impression made upon the ear by sonorous vibrations, and also the vibrations themselves, which are the cause or source of that impression. Mixture is used for the act of mixing, as well as for the product of that operation. Taste