EXERCISE

Give familiar equivalents for the following words:—­

1. emancipate. 2. procure. 3. opportunity. 4. peruse. 5. elapsed. 6. approximately. 7. abbreviate. 8. constitute. 9. simultaneous. 10. familiar. 11. deceased. 12. oral. 13. adhere. 14. edifice. 15. collide. 16. suburban. 17. repugnance. 18. grotesque. 19. equipage. 20. exaggerate. 21. ascend. 22. financial. 23. nocturnal. 24. maternal. 25. vision. 26. affinity. 27. cohere. 28. athwart. 29. clavicle. 30. omnipotent. 31. enumerate. 32. eradicate. 33. application. 34. constitute. 35. employer. 36. rendezvous. 37. obscure. 38. indicate. 39. prevaricate.

+66.  Definitions Need to be Supplemented.+—­The purpose of exposition is to make clear to others that which we understand ourselves.  If the mere statement of a definition does not accomplish this result, we may often make our meaning clear by supplementing the definition with suitable comparisons and examples.  In making use of comparisons and examples we must choose those with which our readers are familiar, and we must be sure that they fairly represent the term that we wish to illustrate.

+Theme XXXVI.+—­Explain any one of the following terms.  Begin with as exact a definition as you can frame.

1.  A “fly” in baseball. 2.  A “foul” in basket ball. 3.  A “sneak.” 4.  A hero. 5.  A “spitfire.” 6.  A laborer. 7.  A capitalist. 8.  A coward. 9.  A freshman. 10.  A “header.”

(Is your definition exact, or only approximately so?  How have you made its meaning clear?  Can you think of a better comparison or a better example?  Can your meaning be made clearer, or be more effectively presented, by arranging your material in a different order?)

+67.  General Description.+—­We may often make clear the meaning of a term by giving details.  In describing a New England village we might enumerate the streets, the houses, the town pump, the church, and other features.  This would be specific description if the purpose was to have the reader picture some particular village; but if the purpose was to give the reader a clear conception of the general characteristics of all New England villages, the paragraph would become a general description.

Such a general description would include all the characteristics common to all the members of the class under discussion, but would omit any characteristic peculiar to some of them.  For example, a general description of a windmill includes the things common to all windmills.  If an object is described more for the purpose of giving a clear conception of the class of which it is a type than for the purpose of picturing the object described, we have a general description.  Such a description is in effect an enlarged definition, and is exposition rather than description.  It is sometimes called scientific description because it is so commonly employed by writers of scientific books.