Study the following words in pairs. Consult the dictionary for actual
meanings. Then test your knowledge by embodying each word of each pair in
a sentence, or in an illustration like those of the race-track and the
bear in the preceding paragraphs.
superior, inferior concord, discord
export, import domestic, foreign
fact, fiction prose, poetry
verbal, oral literal, figurative
predecessor, successor genuine, artificial
positive, negative practical, theoretical
optimism, pessimism finite, infinite
longitude, latitude evolution, revolution
oriental, occidental pathos, bathos
sacred, profane military, civil
clergy, laity capital, labor
ingress, egress element, compound
horizontal, perpendicular competition, coöperation
predestination, freewill universal, particular
extrinsic, intrinsic inflation, deflation
dorsal, ventral acid, alkali
synonym, antonym prologue, epilogue
nadir, zenith amateur, connoisseur
anterior, posterior stoic, epicure
ordinal, cardinal centripetal, centrifugal
stalagmite, stalactite orthodox, heterodox
homogeneous, heterogeneous monogamy, polygamy
induction, deduction egoism, altruism
Unitarian, Trinitarian concentric, eccentric
herbivorous, carnivorous deciduous, perennial
esoteric, exoteric endogen, exogen
vertebrate, invertebrate catalectic, acatalectic
<Words Often Confused>
Pairs of the second type are made up of words which are often confused by
careless writers and speakers, and which should be accurately
discriminated.
Sometimes the words are actually akin to each other. _Continuous-
continual_ and _enormity-enormousness_ are examples. Sometimes
they merely look or sound much alike. _Mean-demean_ and _affect-
effect_ are examples. Sometimes the things they designate are more or
less related, so that the ideas behind the words rather than the words
themselves are responsible for the confusion. _Contagious-infectious_
and _knowledge-wisdom_ are examples. Let us distinguish between the
two members of each of the pairs named.
A thing is _continuous_ if it suffers no interruption whatever,
_continual_ if it is broken at regular intervals but as regularly
renewed. Thus "a continuous stretch of forest"; "the continual drip of
water from the eaves."
_Enormity_ pertains to the moral and sometimes the social,
_enormousness_ to the physical. Thus "the enormity of the crime,"
"the enormity of this social offense"; "the enormousness of prehistoric
animals."
_Demean_ is often used reproachfully because of its supposed relation
to _mean_. But it has nothing to do with _mean_. The word with
which to connect it is _demeanor_ (conduct). Thus "We observed how he
demeaned himself" implies no adverse criticism of either the man or his
deportment. Both may be debased to be sure, but they may be exemplary.
To _affect_ means to feign or to have an influence upon, to
_effect_ to bring to pass. Thus "He affects a fondness for classical
music," "The little orphan's story affected those who heard it"; "We
effected a compromise." _Affect_ is never properly used as a noun.
_Effect_ as a noun means result, consequence, or practical operation.
Thus "The shot took instant effect"; "He put this idea into effect."
A disease is _contagious_ when the only way to catch it is through
direct contact with a person already having it, or through contact with
articles such a person has used. A disease is _infectious_ when it is
presumably caused, not by contact with a person, but through widespread
general conditions, as of climate or sanitation.
Our _knowledge_ is our acquaintance with a fact, or the sum total of
our information. Our _wisdom_ is our intellectual and spiritual
discernment, to which our knowledge is one of the contributors.
_Knowledge_ comprises the materials; _wisdom_ the ability to use
them to practical advantage and to worthy or noble purpose.
_Knowledge_ is mental possession; _wisdom_ is mental and moral
power.