[Publisher's Device: Nolumus Vos Ignorare]
ANDOVER:
WARREN F. DRAPER,
Main Street.
1875.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
+WARREN F. DRAPER+,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
of Massachusetts.
Stereotyped and Printed by
W. F. Draper, Andover.
CONTENTS
(added by transcriber)
Note that the letterforms I/i and J/j are distinguished in print,
but are alphabetized together. U/u and V/v are treated as distinct
letters.
Introduction
Author's Preface
Handbook of Synonymes
Index of Greek Words
Publisher's Advertising
INTRODUCTION
TO
THE AMERICAN EDITION.
Dr. Ludwig Döderlein, the author of this work, was born in 1791, and
became Professor in the University of Erlangen. He is an eminent
philologist, and the author of several valuable philological works. The
most important of these are: "The Formation of Latin Words;" "A Homeric
Glossary;" "Handbook of Latin Etymology;" "Latin Synonymes and
Etymologies," in six volumes; on this he labored more than twelve years,
the first volume appearing in 1826, the last in 1828. From this latter
work, the volume here presented was prepared by the author, and first
published in 1840. After a familiarity of several years with most of the
best manuals on Latin Synonymes, we find this superior to any of them,
and better adapted to the wants of the student. It shows an intimate and
comprehensive acquaintance with the language, and a nice discrimination
between the significations of words having a greater or less similarity
of meaning. The distinctions are generally well founded, and clearly
stated. While at times the distinction may seem to be too refined and
subtle, careful observation and more extended study will usually correct
such an impression. The difference between related words may proceed
from a variety of sources. It may be that of genus and species; or it
may be historical, one being used at one time and the other at a
different one; or one is abstract, the other concrete; one is literal,
the other figurative; one is the more common expression, the other the
more elegant; one is a prose word, the other poetical; one belongs to
one kind of poetry, and the other to another. The difference also
consists in the point of view which the writer takes. _Quies_ is rest;
_requies_ also is rest; but the latter word shows that the writer has in
mind a previous state of _unrest_. There are other differences also
growing out of the essential nature of the words.
The advantages of the study of synonymes in a classical course, are too
great to be neglected. A knowledge of them gives to the student a
fulness and precision of his author's meaning otherwise unattainable.
The point of a sentence often turns upon a delicate shade of thought
conveyed by a particular word, which another of similar signification
would not give; if this delicate shade is not appreciated, the writer's
thought is either misapprehended, or but imperfectly understood.
Again, the habit of observing the proper use of words related to each
other in meaning, as whether one is generic, and the other specific, one
abstract, the other concrete, one literal, the other figurative, or
whatever be the ground and nature of the difference, is one of the
essential benefits of classical study. The whole process of such study,
when rightly conducted, is that of "arbitrating between conflicting
probabilities;" and the closest power of arbitration is often requisite
in determining the particular idea conveyed by related words. Or, if the
distinctions are drawn out, as they are in a treatise on synonymes, the
mind of the student is trained to close and discriminating observation,
in being required to note and fix these distinctions, and to give a
definite form to them in his own mind, and to express them in his own
language.
Besides the more direct advantages resulting from the study of
synonymes, an increased interest will thereby be given to classical
studies There is a natural fondness in the youthful mind for the process
of comparison, for tracing resemblances and differences. This element
should not be neglected when it can be turned to so good account. It
will help to relieve the tedium and barrenness of classical study, as
too often conducted, and to give some living features to languages which
are too generally looked upon as "dead."
The meaning of a particular word is often given more distinctly by
stating its opposite. The relation, or shade of thought, which cannot be
conveyed fully by a direct definition, nor perhaps, indeed, by words at
all, is made clear and distinct by showing to what it is opposed. This
valuable means of elucidation, the author has used with great success in
this work.
While the author has "omitted all detail in the treatment of Greek
synonymes" in this compend, he has very wisely sought out the nearest
corresponding Greek expression, and placed it with the Latin word to be
explained. Thus the Greek word, to the more advanced scholar, will often
throw light upon the Latin, and the Latin in turn upon the Greek. In
this way the work is indirectly valuable in elucidating Greek synonymes.
The present edition of this work is reprinted from the second London
edition, which is essentially the same as the first, with a few
corrections and improvements.