English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 194

1. What is the literal meaning of _term_? 2. Is this meaning retained in the figurative uses of the word? 3. What are the _articles_ of a contract? the _terms_ of a contract? 4. What is a _condition_? 5. What is a _term_ in the logical sense? 6. How does _term_ in ordinary use compare with _word_, _expression_, or _phrase_?

EXAMPLES.

For beauty's acme hath a ---- as brief As the wave's poise before it break in pearl.

But what are these moral sermons [of Seneca]? ----s, nothing but ----s.

The very ---- miser is a confession of the misery which attends avarice.

TERSE (page 354).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is the meaning of _short_ or _brief_? 2. What is the derivation and meaning of _concise_? of _condensed_? of _compendious_? 3. What is the derivation and meaning of _succinct_? of _terse_? 4. What is the force of _summary_? 5. What is a _sententious_ style? a _pithy_ utterance?

EXAMPLES.

With all his lucidity of statement, Hamilton was not always ----.

In most cases it will be found that the Victorian idiom is clearer, but less ---- than the corresponding Elizabethan idiom which it has supplanted.

TESTIMONY (page 355).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is _testimony_? 2. How does it compare with _evidence_? 3. How does a _deposition_ differ from an _affidavit_?

EXAMPLES.

The word ----, in legal acceptation, includes all the means by which any alleged matter of fact, the truth of which is submitted to us for investigation, is established or disproved.

As to the fruits of Sodom, fair without, full of ashes within, I saw nothing of them, tho from the ---- we have, something of this kind has been produced.

TIME (page 356).

QUESTIONS.

1. To what do _sequence_ and _succession_ apply? 2. What does _time_ denote? How is it conceived of with reference to events? 3. How do _duration_ and _succession_ compare with _time_?

EXAMPLES.

Every event remembered is remembered as having happened in ---- past. This gives us the idea in the concrete.... We can now, by a process of abstraction, separate the ---- from the event, and we have the abstract idea of _time_.

The ---- of each earthquake is measured generally only by seconds, or even parts of a second.

It has been conjectured that our idea of ---- is founded upon the conscious ---- of sensations and ideas in our own minds.

TOOL (page 358).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is a _tool_? 2. How does _instrument_ compare in meaning with _tool_? 3. What special _tools_ are ordinarily called _instruments_? 4.

What is an _implement_? 5. What is a _utensil_? In what special relations is the word used? 6. What is an _appliance_? How does _appliance_ compare with _tool_? 7. What is a _mechanism_? 8. What is a _machine_ in the most general sense? in the technical and common use? 9.

What is an _apparatus_? 10. Which of these words have figurative use?

11. How are _instrument_ and _tool_ contrasted in figurative use?

EXAMPLES.

The time is coming when the ----s of husbandry shall supplant the weapons of war.

Mix salt and sand, and it shall puzzle the wisest of men, with his mere natural ----s, to separate all the grains of sand from all the grains of salt.

The pick, stone-saw, wedge, chisel, and other ----s were already in use when the pyramids were built.

TOPIC (page 359).

QUESTIONS.

1. From what is _topic_ derived, and with what meaning? 2. How is _question_ used in a similar sense, and why? 3. Is the general _subject_ or _theme_ properly known as the _topic_? To what is that name more appropriately given?

EXAMPLES.

My father ... always took care to start some ingenious or useful ---- of discourse, which might tend to improve the minds of his children.

One of the most important rules in a deliberative a.s.sembly is, that every speaker shall speak to the ----.

The ---- of the Iliad is not the war of Troy, but the wrath of Achilles exhibited during and in connection with the war of Troy.