English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 173

OATH (page 254).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is an _oath_? an _affidavit_? How does the _affidavit_ differ from the _oath_? 2. What is an _adjuration_? 3. What is a _vow_? How does it differ from an _oath_? 4. Of what words is _oath_ a popular synonym? 5. In what do _anathema_, _curse_, _execration_, and _imprecation_ agree? 6. What is an _anathema_? 7. Is a _curse_ just or unjust? 8. What does _execration_ express? _imprecation_?

EXAMPLES.

Better is it that thou shouldest not ----, than that thou shouldest ---- and not pay.

Then how can any man be said To break an ---- he never made?

OBSCURE (page 255).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is _obscure_? 2. How does _obscure_ compare with _complicated_?

with _complex_? with _abstruse_? with _profound_?

OBSOLETE (page 256).

QUESTIONS.

1. When is a word _obsolete_? When is a word _archaic_? 2. Is an _old_ or _ancient_ word necessarily _obsolete_? 3. What is meant by saying that a word is _rare_? 4. Is a _rare_ word necessarily _obsolete_ or an _obsolete_ word necessarily _rare_?

EXAMPLES.

When the labors of modern philologists began, Sanscrit was the most ---- of all the Aryan languages known to them.

Atlas, we read in ---- song, Was so exceeding tall and strong, He bore the skies upon his back, Just as the pedler does his pack.

It is wonderful that so few ---- words are found in Shakespeare after the lapse of three centuries.

OBSTINATE (page 256).

QUESTIONS.

1. How does _headstrong_ differ from _obstinate_ and _stubborn_? 2. How do _obstinate_ and _stubborn_ differ from each other? Which is commonly applied to the inferior animals and to inanimate things? 3. What is the meaning of _refractory_? How does it differ from _stubborn_? Which word is applied to metals, and in what sense? 4. What is the meaning of _obdurate_? _contumacious_? _pertinacious_? 5. What words do we apply to the _unyielding_ character or conduct that we approve?

EXAMPLES.

Is it in heav'n a crime to love too well?

To bear too tender, or too ---- a heart, To act a Lover's or a Roman's part?

"I shall talk of what I like," she said wilfully, clasping her hands round her knees with the gesture of an ---- child.

OBSTRUCT (page 257).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is the literal meaning of _obstruct_? How does it compare with _hinder_? 2. How does _obstruct_ compare with _impede_? 3. What does _arrest_ signify in the sense here considered?

EXAMPLES.

There is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education often labors to silence and ----.

No, no ----ing the vast wheel of time, That round and round still turns with onward might.

OLD (page 257).

QUESTIONS.

1. What does _old_ signify? 2. How do _old_ and _ancient_ compare? 3.

What contrasted senses has _old_? 4. What is the special force of _olden_? 5. In what sense are _gray_, _h.o.a.ry_, and _olden_ used of material objects? 6. To what is _aged_ chiefly applied? 7. To what do _decrepit_, _gray_, and _h.o.a.ry_ apply, as said of human beings? 8. To what does _senile_ apply? 9. In what sense is _elderly_ used? 10. What are the primary and derived meanings of _remote_? 11. What does _venerable_ express?

EXAMPLES.

The hills, Rock-ribbed and ---- as the sun,--the vales Stretching in pensive quietness between; The ---- woods, ...

... and, poured round all, ---- ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-- Are but the solemn decorations all Of the great tomb of man.

Through the sequestered vale of rural life, The ---- patriarch guileless held The tenor of his way.

O good ---- head which all men knew!

Shall we, shall ---- men, like ---- trees, Strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling, Still more enamored of their wretched soil?