Thesaurus of English Words: So Classified and Arranged as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary CompositionGould and Lincoln, 1854 - 468 Seiten |
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Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
abridgment Absence abstract According adapted Aerostatics AFFECTIONS appulse ARNOLD GUYOT ation bear bend blow break breath bring CALEFACTION cast Church close color Congregational Church contravallation course court demulcent demur draw ence engraver entertaining excite express eyes faith fall false flat foot give ground hand hang head heart HISTORY OF PALESTINE hold honor HUGH MILLER ideas inter keep labor language lenitive light LOUIS AGASSIZ matter mean ment mind moral motion nature ness Old Red Sandstone one's pain pass pleasure prostration Puritan Recorder reason relation render scrupulosity SECTION sense shade short sion sive slip sound spirit spissitude stand Stridor taste thing thought throw tion tive tude ture turn uncon UNCONFORMITY VOLITION words
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 12 - Into every process of reasoning, language enters as an essential element. Words are the instruments by which we form all our abstractions, by which we fashion and embody our ideas, and by which we are enabled to glide along a series of premises and conclusions with a rapidity so great as to leave in memory no trace of the successive steps of the process; and we remain unconscious how much we owe to this potent auxiliary of the reasoning faculty.
Seite 12 - The utility of the present work will he appreciated more especially by those who are engaged in the arduous process of translating into English a work written in another language. Simple as the operation may appear, on a superficial view, of rendering into English each of its sentences, the task of transfusing, with perfect exactness, the sense of the original, preserving, at the same time, the style and character of its composition, and reflecting, with fidelity, the mind and the spirit of the author,...
Seite 9 - English language, a desideratum hitherto unsupplied in any language ; namely, a collection of the words it contains and of the idiomatic combinations peculiar to it, arranged, not in alphabetical order as they are in a Dictionary, but according to the ideas which they express.* The purpose of...
Seite 11 - It is to those who are thus painfully groping their way and struggling with the difficulties of composition, that this Work professes to hold out a helping hand. The assistance it gives is that of furnishing on every topic a copious store of words and phrases, adapted to express all the recognizable shades and modifications of the general idea under which those words and phrases are arranged. The inquirer can readily select, out of the ample collection spread out before his eyes in the following...
Seite 11 - ... before his eyes in the following pages, those expressions which are best suited to his purpose, and which might not have occurred to him without such assistance. In order to make this selection, he scarcely ever need engage in any critical or elaborate study of the subtle distinctions existing between synonymous terms ; for if the materials set before him be sufficiently abundant, an instinctive tact will rarely fail to lead him to the proper choice.
Seite 11 - ... tortuous circumlocution. Some felicitous turn of expression thus introduced will frequently open to the mind of the reader a whole vista of collateral ideas, which could not, without an extended and obtrusive episode, have been unfolded to his view; and often will the judicious insertion of a happy epithet, like a beam of sunshine in a landscape, illumine and adorn the subject which it touches, imparting new grace and giving life and spirit to the picture. Every workman in the exercise of his...
Seite 9 - The object aimed at here is exactly the converse of this : the idea being given, to flnd the word or words by which that idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed. For this purpose, the words and phrases of the language are here classed, not according to their sound or their orthography, but strictly according to their signification.
Seite 10 - However distinct may be our views, however vivid our conceptions, or however fervent our emotions, we cannot but be often conscious that the phraseology we have at our command is inadequate to do them justice. We seek in vain the words we need, and strive ineffectually to devise forms of expression which shall faithfully portray our thoughts and sentiments. The appropriate terms, notwithstanding our utmost efforts, cannot be conjured up at will. Like 'spirits from the vasty deep...