PREFACE.
There are but few of our schools in which any attention is paid to definitions, and in none does this subject receive the degree of attention which its importance demands: nor is there more than here and there a person who, at any period of his life, has endeavored to improve his acquaintance with the signification of words by the use of a dictionary. It follows, therefore, as a consequence of this twofold neglect, that most persons have no other knowledge of the meaning of words than such as they have acquired by observation.
Now, those who rely solely on observation are liable to frequent mistakes. Persons who have often met with a word in reading are apt to imagine that they understand it, because it is familiar to the eye, and because they have, mentally, attached some kind of a meaning to it; yet, on examination, it may be found that they have either mistaken the meaning entirely, or that they have, at best, but a confused idea of the sense of the term. Of the young men and women of our country, there is hardly one in ten who can define the words fragrant, verdant, royal, omniscient, omnipotent, celestial, terrestrial, gratitude, fortitude, and hundreds of others equally common and useful. They would, if interrogated, give definitions like the following: Fragrant means beautiful; Verdant signifies fresh; Royal means delicious; etc., etc. The foregoing definitions, and hundreds of others similar to them, have actually been given before a Board of County Examiners, of which the author has been a member.
It is important that young persons should form a habit of referring to a dictionary in all cases of words which they do not understand. But to be able to use a dictionary advantageously requires a certain amount of preparatory discipline. Those who have had no practice in the study of definitions, are apt to be confused rather than enlightened in consulting a common dictionary. The definitions themselves often need to be defined, and the student is frequently at a loss to make an appropriate selection from several different definitions of the same word.
One object of the present work is to prepare the student for a discriminating and profitable use of the dictionary. The author trusts that his definitions will be found sufficiently simple and intelligible for the use of all pupils who are old enough to engage in the study of a class-book of definitions.
Another object has been to collect and define so large a proportion of the most common and useful words of the language, as in a good measure to supersede the necessity of using a dictionary.
To attain these ends, the topical, instead of the alphabetical principle of arrangement, has been adopted.
The following are some of the advantages of the classification of words by topics:
1. When all the leading terms relating to the same general subject are collected together, duly arranged, and appropriately defined, the definitions taken collectively constitute a brief treatise on that particular subject, and lend to each other a mutual interest which would be lost if the same definitions were disjoined by the artificial arrangement of an alphabetical vocabulary.
2. The association of words, according to their affinities of meaning, or according to their common relation to the same central idea, assists the memory, so that a collection of kindred words, with their definitions, will be more easily remembered than the same number of words and definitions that have no bond of mutual connection. Let, for instance, the various English terms that relate to the idea of Light be collected, arranged, and defined, the student will thereby be enabled to treasure up, in the space of an hour or two, a stock of information which would have required years to accumulate by consulting a dictionary, as the terms might occur from time to time in the course of his reading. Other subjects, as those of Color, Sound, Form, Number, Time, etc., might be mastered with a like facility; and in the course of a few months the learner might, in this manner, gain some knowledge of a large proportion of the more useful terms of the language.
3. A topical classification of words necessarily brings synonyms, or words of similar meaning, in juxtaposition. Now, it is much easier to learn to discriminate between words separated only by slight shades of difference in their meaning when they are defined and studied in connection with each other, than when they are considered separately.
4. The topical classification of words brings together the different terms derived from the same root. Now, the definition of a Latin or Greek root will frequently shed such a light upon a number of English terms derived from this root, as to render it unnecessary to define the derivatives separately, and thus an important saving of time and labor to the student is effected. The association of the derivatives with their root also aids the memory in retaining the entire family; for any one of the derivatives will suggest the idea of the root, and the recollection of the root will suggest all the derivatives with their significations. Another advantage of studying words in connection with their roots is, that this connection often gives a force and beauty to the meaning of the derivatives, which would be entirely lost in any definition that disregarded this connection.
Nearly all the Latin and Greek roots from which important English words have been derived will be found in the present work, the most of them occurring more than once. The study of this volume may therefore serve, in some degree, as a substitute for the study of the Latin and Greek languages.
The author would claim the following as points of special merit in his work, as compared with most other works analogous in their nature to the present:
1. The connection between the meaning of roots and that of their derivatives, has, in most instances, been clearly exhibited.
2. The connection between the primary and the secondary meanings of the same word has generally been traced, and the process by which one meaning has grown out of another has been pointed out.
3. The faulty method of defining by synonyms has been avoided, each definition being given in the form of a single short sentence, descriptive of the meaning of the word defined.
4. A large proportion of the definitions are illustrated by sentences and phrases, showing the proper manner of using the words defined.
5. The present is a readable book of definitions, a claim which can be made in behalf of no other work extant, since no dictionary or definer, in which the words are arranged alphabetically, can be used in any other way than as a book of reference. The man who undertook to read the dictionary through thought that the subject changed too frequently and too abruptly, and soon abandoned the enterprise. The young lady who undertook to read the same book, found the stories too short to be interesting. The topical arrangement of the present work gives connection and continuity to the subjects, and weaves the young lady's very short stories into entertaining tales of a respectable length.
6. A common dictionary may be compared to a cabinet of minerals, in which the specimens are arranged according to their shape, size, or color, and not according to their chemical nature. The object of the present undertaking is to sort the specimens, and to arrange them according to their natural affinities, assigning to the earths, the metallic ores, and the precious stones distinct compartments, and appropriating a separate shelf to each species, with its several varieties.
In conclusion, the author would say, that if the present volume shall be found adapted to give interest to what has hitherto been regarded by most persons as a dry branch of learning, and to induce a more general attention to the all-important but much-neglected study of words, the object which prompted the preparation of the volume will have been attained.
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