Webster's New World Thesaurus [antikvár]

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION The book in your hands was intended to be the readiest word-suggester. It should be easy to use, for the book was planned and designed to make it easy, almost natural, to rely on. Still, somé explanatión may help. Many people ha ve never leamed to uae a thesaurus at all, and those who have may find that this book differs from others they have tried. (Meanwhile, if you want capsule advice for using the book turn to page x). Mainly, the book is an assortment of synonyms, but we mean something different by the word synonym than have somé editora, and we have brought terms together differently. Partly we are recognizing that relationships among words are complex and subtle, and this subtlety becomes involved in word choice, as somé foreign-bom gentlemen learning English as a second language are said to have discovered. Having no professional teacher, they would read English books and meet together at one another's houses to talk English. Ón this evening Mr. X was entertaining his friends. The conversa-tion started üke this: "Good evening, Mr. X. I have the pleasure to ask after your health, and the health of your wife and children." "Thank you, Mr. Y. I am well, and so is my wife, but it is my great sorrow that I have no children. My wife is unbearable." "That is a great tragedy, Mr. X. You will forgive me what I say now, but you know we have the obligation to correct one another. I understand that the proper English word for Mrs. X's unfortunate condition is, she is impregnable." At this point Mr. Z spoke up. "And you will forgive me, Mr. Y, but I must teli you that the proper English word for Mrs. X's most unfortunate condition is that she is inconceivable." Of course these reflections on the infertility of the hostess were not intended as the insults they seem to be. A woman need not be unbearable because she cannot bear children; she is not necessarily impregnable because she cannot be impregnated, and she is not inconceivable because she cannot conceive a child. Families of words are üke families of people in this, that the family has grown a long time, that each term has gone its own way, and no one of them is exactly üke any other. A word may be able to take over the job of a word similar in sound or meaning, but it may not. How is one to know? The knowing is not easy, but good books on words can help, particularly if the person using the books knows what each of them can be expected to do.