English Synonyms and Antonyms Part 65

To aggregate and to a.s.sociate, to evoke and to combine, belong as well to the _imagination_ as to the _fancy_; but either the materials evoked and combined are different; or they are brought together under a different law, and for a different purpose. _Fancy_ does not require that the materials which she makes use of should be susceptible of changes in their const.i.tution from her touch; and where they admit of modification, it is enough for her purpose if it be slight, limited, and evanescent. Directly the reverse of these are the desires and demands of the _imagination_. She recoils from everything but the plastic, the pliant, and the indefinite. She leaves it to _fancy_ to describe Queen Mab as coming:

'In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman.'

Having to speak of stature, she does not tell you that her gigantic angel was as tall as Pompey's Pillar; much less that he was twelve cubits or twelve hundred cubits high; or that his dimensions equalled those of Teneriffe or Atlas; because these, and if they were a million times as high, it would be the same, are bounded. The expression is, 'His stature reached the sky!' the illimitable firmament!--When the _imagination_ frames a comparison, ... a sense of the truth of the likeness from the moment that it is perceived grows--and continues to grow--upon the mind; the resemblance depending less upon outline of form and feature than upon expression and effect, less upon casual and outstanding than upon inherent and internal properties.[B]

_Poetical Works, Pref. to Ed. of 1815_, p. 646, app. [T. & H. '51.]

So far as actual images are concerned, both _fancy_ and _imagination_ are limited to the materials furnished by the external world; it is remarkable that among all the representations of G.o.ds or demiG.o.ds, fiends and demons, griffins and chimaeras, the human mind has never invented one organ or attribute that is not presented in human or animal life; the lion may have a human head and an eagle's wings and claws, but in the various features, individually, there is absolutely nothing new.

But _imagination_ can transcend the work of _fancy_, and compare an image drawn from the external world with some spiritual truth born in the mind itself, or infuse a series of images with such a spiritual truth, molding them as needed for its more vivid expression.

The _imagination_ modifies images, and gives unity to variety; it sees all things in one.... There is the epic _imagination_, the perfection of which is in Milton; and the dramatic, of which Shakspeare is the absolute master.

COLERIDGE _Table Talk_ June 23, '34.

_Fancy_ keeps the material image prominent and clear, and works not only with it, but for it; _imagination_ always uses the material object as the minister of something greater than itself, and often almost loses the object in the spiritual idea with which she has a.s.sociated it, and for which alone she values it. _Fancy_ flits about the surface, and is airy and playful, sometimes petty and sometimes false; _imagination_ goes to the heart of things, and is deep, earnest, serious, and seeks always and everywhere for essential truth. _Fancy_ sets off, variegates, and decorates; _imagination_ transforms and exalts. _Fancy_ delights and entertains; _imagination_ moves and thrills. _Imagination_ is not only poetic or literary, but scientific, philosophical, and practical. By _imagination_ the architect sees the unity of a building not yet begun, and the inventor sees the unity and varied interactions of a machine never yet constructed, even a unity that no human eye ever can see, since when the machine is in actual motion, one part may hide the connecting parts, and yet all keep the unity of the inventor's thought.

By _imagination_ a Newton sweeps sun, planets, and stars into unity with the earth and the apple that is drawn irresistibly to its surface, and sees them all within the circle of one grand law. Science, philosophy, and mechanical invention have little use for _fancy_, but the creative, penetrative power of _imagination_ is to them the breath of life, and the condition of all advance and success. See also FANCY; IDEA.

[B] The whole discussion from which the quotation is taken is worthy of, and will well repay, careful study.

IMMEDIATELY.

Synonyms:

at once, instanter, presently, straightway, directly, instantly, right away, this instant, forthwith, now, right off, without delay.

The strong and general human tendency to procrastination is shown in the progressive weakening of the various words in this group. _Immediately_ primarily signifies without the intervention of anything as a medium, hence without the intervention of any, even the briefest, interval or lapse of time. _By and by_, which was once a synonym, has become an antonym of _immediately_, meaning at some (perhaps remote) future time.

_Directly_, which once meant with no intervening time, now means after some little while; _presently_ no longer means in this very present, but before very long. Even _immediately_ is sliding from its instantaneousness, so that we are fain to subst.i.tute _at once_, _instantly_, etc., when we would make promptness emphatic. _Right away_ and _right off_ are vigorous conversational expressions in the United States.

Antonyms:

after a while, by and by, hereafter, in the future, some time.

IMMERSE.

Synonyms:

bury, dip, douse, duck, immerge, plunge, sink, submerge.

_Dip_ is Saxon, while _immerse_ is Latin for the same initial act; _dip_ is accordingly the more popular and commonplace, _immerse_ the more elegant and dignified expression in many cases. To speak of baptism by immersion as _dipping_ now seems rude; tho entirely proper and usual in early English. Baptists now universally use the word _immerse_. To _dip_ and to _immerse_ alike signify to _bury_ or _submerge_ some object in a liquid; but _dip_ implies that the object _dipped_ is at once removed from the liquid, while _immerse_ is wholly silent as to the removal.

_Immerse_ also suggests more absolute completeness of the action; one may _dip_ his sleeve or _dip_ a sponge in a liquid, if he but touches the edge; if he _immerses_ it, he completely _sinks_ it under, and covers it with the liquid. _Submerge_ implies that the object can not readily be removed, if at all; as, a _submerged_ wreck. To _plunge_ is to _immerse_ suddenly and violently, for which _douse_ and _duck_ are colloquial terms. _Dip_ is used, also, unlike the other words, to denote the putting of a hollow vessel into a liquid in order to remove a portion of it; in this sense we say _dip up_, _dip out_. Compare synonyms for BURY.

Preposition:

The object is immersed _in_ water.

IMMINENT.

Synonyms:

impending, threatening.

_Imminent_, from the Latin, with the sense of projecting over, signifies liable to happen at once, as some calamity, dangerous and close at hand.

_Impending_, also from the Latin, with the sense of hanging over, is closely akin to _imminent_, but somewhat less emphatic. _Imminent_ is more immediate, _impending_ more remote, _threatening_ more contingent.

An _impending_ evil is almost sure to happen at some uncertain time, perhaps very near; an _imminent_ peril is one liable to befall very speedily; a _threatening_ peril may be near or remote, but always with hope that it may be averted.

Antonyms:

chimerical, doubtful, problematical, unexpected, unlikely.

contingent, improbable,

IMPEDIMENT.

Synonyms:

bar, clog, enc.u.mbrance, obstacle, barrier, difficulty, hindrance, obstruction.

_Difficulty_ makes an undertaking otherwise than easy. That which rests upon one as a burden is an _enc.u.mbrance_. An _impediment_ is primarily something that checks the foot or in any way makes advance slow or difficult; an _obstacle_ is something that stands across the way, an _obstruction_ something that is built or placed across the way. An _obstruction_ is always an _obstacle_, but an _obstacle_ may not always be properly termed an _obstruction_; boxes and bales placed on the sidewalk are _obstructions_ to travel; an ice-floe is an _obstacle_ to navigation, and may become an _obstruction_ if it closes an inlet or channel. A _hindrance_ (kindred with _hind_, _behind_) is anything that makes one come behind or short of his purpose. An _impediment_ may be either what one finds in his way or what he carries with him; _impedimenta_ was the Latin name for the baggage of a soldier or of an army. The tendency is to view an _impediment_ as something constant or, at least for a time, continuous; as, an _impediment_ in one's speech. A _difficulty_ or a _hindrance_ may be either within one or without; a speaker may find _difficulty_ in expressing himself, or _difficulty_ in holding the attention of restless children. An _enc.u.mbrance_ is always what one carries with him; an _obstacle_ or an _obstruction_ is always without. To a marching soldier the steepness of a mountain path is a _difficulty_, loose stones are _impediments_, a fence is an _obstruction_, a cliff or a boulder across the way is an _obstacle_; a knapsack is an _enc.u.mbrance_.

Antonyms:

advantage, aid, a.s.sistance, benefit, help, relief, succor.

IMPUDENCE.

Synonyms:

a.s.surance, impertinence, intrusiveness, presumption, boldness, incivility, officiousness, rudeness, effrontery, insolence, pertness, sauciness.

forwardness,