Heretics
G. K. Chesterton · Pre-Reading Vocabulary · prepared by Vocabularium
Match guide. Of this book’s 62,121 words of running text, a reader who knows the 3,000 most common English words can already read 87% — one who knows 6,000 reads 92%. The lists below close most of the remaining gap.
Words Worth Knowing Anywhere
High School (76 words)
humility ×39 Webster 1828
noun [Latin humilitas.]
1. In ethics, freedom from pride and arrogance; humbleness of mind; a modest estimate of one's own worth.
“The truth is, that all genuine appreciation rests on a certain mystery of humility and almost of darkness.”
pagan ×29 Webster 1828
noun [Latin paganus, a peasant or countryman, from pagus, a village.] A heathen; a Gentile; an idolater; one who worships false gods.
“How different the Pagan and Stoical feeling was from this has been admirably expressed in a famous quotation.”
paradox ×20 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. beyond, and opinion; to or suppose.]
A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.
A gloss there is to color that paradox and make it appear in show not to be altogether un…
“In Christianity he found the answers to the dilemmas and paradoxes he saw in life.”
simplicity ×20 Webster 1828
noun [Latin simplicitas.]
1. Singleness; the state of being unmixed or uncompounded; as the simplicity of metals or of earths.
2. The state of being not complex, or of consisting of few parts; as the simplicity of a machine.
3.
“On Sandals and Simplicity 11.”
definite ×20 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Having certain limits; bounded with precision; determinate; as a definite extent of land; definite dimensions; definite measure.
2.
“unless he has a definite creed and a cast-iron code of morals.”
objection ×19 Webster 1828
noun [Latin objectio.]
1. The act of objecting.
2. That which is presented in opposition; adverse reason or argument. The defendant urged several objections to the plaintiff's claims.
“Doubtless there are other objections which can be urged without unreason against the influence of gods and visions in morality, whether in the cell or street.”
sane ×18 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin sanus, Eng. sound. This is the Eng. sound. See sound.]
1. Sound; not disordered or shattered; healthy; as a sane body.
2.
“But the modern student of ethics, even if he remains sane, remains sane from an insane dread of insanity.”
preach ×16 Webster 1828
verb intransitive [Latin proeco, a crier; precor.]
1. To pronounce a public discourse on a religious subject, or from a subject, or from a text of Scripture.
“Lowes Dickinson Of the New Paganism (or neo-Paganism), as it was preached flamboyantly by Mr.”
creed ×14 Webster 1828
noun [This word seems to have been introduced by the use of the Latin credo, I believe, at the beginning of the Apostles creed or brief system of Christian faith. See creed ]
1.
“Then we talk about Lord Anglesey and the weather, and call it the complete liberty of all the creeds.”
conquer ×13 Webster 1828
verb transitive
1. To subdue; to reduce, by physical force, till resistance is no longer made; to overcome; to vanquish. Alexander conquered Asia. The Romans conquered Carthage.
2.
“The sentimentalists conquered Napoleon.”
vanity ×13 Webster 1828
noun [Latin vanitas, from vanus, vain.]
1. Emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity.
Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity Ecclesiastes 1:2.
2.
“It is mistaken for it all the more easily because it generally goes with a certain simple love of splendour which amounts to vanity.”
novelist ×12 Webster 1828
noun
1. An innovator; an asserter of novelty.
2. A writer of a novel or of novels.
3. A writer of news.
“On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set 16.”
vulgar ×12 Webster 1828
VULGAR , adjective
1. Pertaining to the common unlettered people; as vulgar life.
2. Used or practiced by common people; as vulgar sports.
3.
“Here is a solid and ancient festive tradition still plying a roaring trade in the streets, and they think it vulgar.”
vain ×12 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin vanus; Eng. wan, wane, want.]
1. Empty; worthless; having no substance, value or importance. 1 Peter 1:18.
To your vain answer will you have recourse.
Every man walketh in a vain show.
“I do not know where he has been brushed to, but wherever it is I fancy he is having a good time, because he had the wisdom to be vain, and not proud.”
philosopher ×11 Webster 1828
noun [See Philosophy.] A person versed in philosophy, or in the principles of nature and morality; one who devotes of nature and morality; one who devotes himself to the study of physics, or of moral or intellectual science.
1.
“It is foolish, generally speaking, for a philosopher to set fire to another philosopher in Smithfield Market because they do not agree in their theory of the universe.”
splendid ×11 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin , to shine. See Plain.]
1. Properly, shining; very bright; as a splendid sun. Hence,
2.
“The bore would go onward, bold and gay, and find the blades of grass as splendid as the swords of an army.”
sensational ×11 Webster 1913
1. Of or pertaining to sensation; as,
sensational nerves. 2. Of or pertaining to sensationalism, or the
doctrine that sensation is the sole origin of knowledge. 3.
“He has abandoned the sensational theory with the same honourable gravity and simplicity with which he adopted it.”
nationality ×11 Webster 1828
noun National character; also, the quality of being national, or strongly attached to ones own nation.
“If you had attempted to substitute the ideal of race for the ideal of nationality, I really do not like to think what they would have said.”
confess ×10 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin , to own or acknowledge.]
1. To own, acknowledge or avow, as a crime, a fault, a charge, a debt, or something that is against one's interest, or reputation.
Human faults with human grief confess
I confess t…
“For obviously a man ought to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical.”
hopeless ×10 Webster 1828
adjective Destitute of hope; having no expectation of that which is desirable; despairing.
I am a woman, friendless, hopeless
1.
“Now our affairs are hopelessly muddled by strong, silent men.”
perpetual ×10 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin perpetuus, from perpes, perpetis; per and pes, from a root signifying to pass.]
1. Never ceasing; continuing forever in future time; destined to be eternal; as a perpetual covenant; a perpetual statute.
[Literal…
“Just as such a man would be perpetually putting off the question of the ultimate use of carpentry, so Mr.”
sincere ×10 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin sincerus, which is said to be composed of sine, without, and cera, wax; as if applied originally to pure honey.]
1. Pure; unmixed. As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word. 1 Peter 2:2.
“I remember a pamphlet by that able and sincere secularist, Mr.”
careless ×10 Webster 1828
adjective [care and less. See Loose.]
1. Having no care; heedless; negligent; unthinking; inattentive; regardless; unmindful; followed by of or about; as a careless mother; a mother careless of or about her children, is an unnatu…
“But even then we are only trying to be healthy in order to be careless.”
cosmos ×9 Webster 1913
1. The universe or universality of
created things; -- so called from the order and harmony displayed
in it. 2.
“We think the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether in the long run, anything else affects them.”
neighbour ×9 Modern
1. (noun) a nearby object of the same kind 2. (noun) a person who lives (or is located) near another 3. (verb) be located near or adjacent to
“The complaint we commonly have to make of our neighbours is that they will not, as we express it, mind their own business.”
heroic ×9 Webster 1828
adjective Pertaining to a hero or heroes; as heroic valor.
1. Becoming a hero; bold; daring; illustrious; as heroic action; heroic enterprises.
2.
“In the case of Smith, the name is so poetical that it must be an arduous and heroic matter for the man to live up to it.”
dim ×9 Webster 1828
adjective [See Damp.]
1. Not seeing clearly; having the vision obscured and indistinct.
When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim Genesis 27:1.
2. Not clearly seen; obscure; imperfectly seen or discovered; as a dim prospect.
3.
“It is quite true that we see a dim light which, compared with a darker thing, is light, but which, compared with a stronger light, is darkness.”
peculiar ×9 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin peculiaris, from peculium, one's own property, from pecus, cattle.]
1. Appropriate; belonging to a person and to him only. Almost every writer has a peculiar style.
“And from this absence of that most uproarious of all things, humility, comes incidentally the peculiar insistence on the Superman.”
wholly ×9 Webster 1828
adverb
1. Entirely; completely; perfectly.
Nor wholly overcome, nor wholly yield.
2. Totally; in all the parts or kinds.
They employed themselves wholly in domestic life.
“Whenever there was in them the least touch of pride in what they had done, there was a good ground for attacking them; but so long as they were wholly humble, they were wholly victorious.”
sentimental ×9 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Abounding with sentiment, or just opinions or reflections; as a sentimental discourse.
2. Expressing quick intellectual feeling.
3. Affecting sensibility; in a contemptuous sense.
“The rude old ballads are as sentimentally concerned for the under-dog as the Aborigines Protection Society.”
remark ×8 Webster 1828
noun Notice or observation, particularly notice or observation expressed in words or writing; as the remarks of an advocate; the remarks made in conversation; the judicious or the uncandid remarks of a critic.
“Introductory Remarks on the Importance of Othodoxy 2.”
perceive ×8 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin percipio; per and capio, to take.]
1. To have knowledge or receive impressions of external objects through the medium or instrumentality of the senses or bodily organs; as, to perceive light or color; to p…
“I perceive that it is far more practical to begin at the beginning and discuss theories.”
gigantic ×8 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin giganticus.] Of extraordinary size; very large; huge; like a giant. A man of gigantic stature.
1.
“Jack was quite unimpressed by the question of whether the giant was a particularly gigantic giant.”
fashionable ×8 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Made according to the prevailing form or mode; as a fashionable dress.
2. Established by custom or use; current; prevailing at a particular time; as the fashionable philosophy; fashionable opinions.
3.
“Charity is a fashionable virtue in our time; it is lit up by the gigantic firelight of Dickens.”
humour ×8 Modern
1. (noun) the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous 2. (noun) the quality of being funny 3. (noun) the liquid parts of the body
“with such smashing sense and humour, that I find it difficult to believe that anybody else can hold it either.”
invent ×8 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin invenio, inventum; in and venio, to come; literally, to come to, to fall on, to meet, Eng. to find.]
1.
“Our yellow journalists invent quite as unscrupulously as this; their moral condition is, as regards careful veracity, about the same.”
mystical ×8 Webster 1828
Majestical
Mysticalness
“The man's desire for the pork-chop remains literally as mystical and ethereal as his desire for heaven.”
attribute ×8 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin attribuo; ad and tribuo, to divide, to bestow, to assign; tribus, a tribe, division or ward. See Tribe.]
1.
“we have all seen attributed to Talleyrand, to Voltaire, to Henri Quatre, to an anonymous judge, and so on.”
satire ×8 Webster 1828
noun [Latin satira; so named from sharpness, pungency. See satyriasis.]
1. A discourse or poem in which wickedness or folly is exposed with severity.
“Of this type of satire the great example is Rabelais.”
boast ×7 Webster 1828
verb intransitive [Gr. to inflate; Latin fastus.]
1. To brag, or vaunt one's self; to make an ostentatious display, in speech, of one's own worth, property, or actions.
2.
“But a few modern phrases have made him boast of it.”
wholesome ×7 Webster 1828
adjective [G.]
1. Tending to promote health; favoring health; salubrious; as wholesome air or diet; a wholesome climate.
2.
“But let us never forget that this visionary religion is, in one sense, necessarily more wholesome than our modern and reasonable morality.”
fundamentally ×7 Webster 1828
noun Primarily; originally; essentially; at the foundation. All power is fundamentally in the citizens of a state.
“The anchorite rolling on the stones in a frenzy of submission is a healthier person fundamentally than many a sober man in a silk hat who is walking down Cheapside.”
patriotism ×7 Webster 1828
PAT'RIOTISM ,noun Love of one's country; the passion which aims to serve one's country, either in defending it from invasion, or protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions in vigor and purity.
“But a man may have learnt much about women in flirtations, and still be ignorant of first love; a man may have known as many lands as Ulysses, and still be ignorant of patriotism.”
doubtful ×7 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Dubious; not settled in opinion; undetermined; wavering; hesitating; applied to persons; as, we are doubtful of a fact, or of the propriety of a measure.
2.
“For progress by its very name indicates a direction; and the moment we are in the least doubtful about the direction, we become in the same degree doubtful about the progress.”
singular ×7 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin singularis, from singulus, single.]
1. Single; not complex or compound. That idea which represents one determinate thing, is called a singular idea, whether simple, complex or compound.
2.
“The truth is that he was not a man essentially bad, he was a man of much geniality and many good intentions, but a man with singularly small views.”
misunderstood ×7 Webster 1828
participle passive Misconceived; mistaken; understood erroneously.
“The man who is misunderstood has always this advantage over his enemies, that they do not know his weak point or his plan of campaign.”
primitive ×7 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin primitivus; from primus, first.]
1. Pertaining to the beginning or origin; original; first; as the primitive state of Adam; primitive innocence; primitive ages; the primitive church; the primitive christian chur…
“The primitive literature is shown in the tale of Jack the Giant-Killer.”
unreasonable ×7 Webster 1828
adjective s as z.
1. Not agreeable to reason.
2. Exceeding the bounds of reason; claiming or insisting on more than is fit; as an unreasonable demand.
3. Immoderate; exorbitant; as an unreasonable love of life or of money.
4.
“Like all the Christian virtues, it is as unreasonable as it is indispensable.”
camel ×7 Webster 1828
noun
1. A large quadruped used in Asia and Africa for carrying burdens, and for riders. As genus, the camel belongs to the order of Pecora.
“He almost rides on a camel.”
flee ×7 Webster 1828
verb intransitive
1. To run with rapidity, as from danger; to attempt to escape; to hasten from danger or expected evil. The enemy fled at the first fire.
Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt.
“And in all this he is still essentially fleeing from the street in which he was born; and of this flight he is always ready with his own explanation.”
satisfactory ×6 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Giving or producing satisfaction; yielding content; particularly, relieving the mind from doubt or uncertainty and enabling it to rest with confidence; as, to give a satisfactory account of any remarkable transaction…
“He is not going to ask what will produce satisfactory saints or satisfactory heroes, but what will produce satisfactory fathers and mothers.”
endure ×6 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin durus, duro.]
1. To last; to continue in the same state without perishing; to remain; to abide.
The Lord shall endure forever.
“in which a man declares that he can endure anything in the way of hunger or horror, but not permanent presence in one place.”
witty ×6 Webster 1828
adjective [from wit.]
1. Possessed of wit; full of wit; as a witty poet.
2. Judicious; ingenious; inventive.
3. Sarcastic; full of taunts.
Honeycomb was unmercifully witty upon the women.
“A man who believes something is ready and witty, because he has all his weapons about him.”
attain ×6 Webster 1828
verb intransitive [Latin attingo, to reach, come to or overtake; ad and tango, to touch, reach or strike; that is, to thrust, urge or push to. it has no connection with Latin attineo. See Class.]
1.
“It is difficult to attain a high ideal; consequently, it is almost impossible to persuade ourselves that we have attained it.”
arresting ×6 Webster 1828
Appreciating
“Now, this arresting, mental humility in Mr.”
conception ×6 Webster 1828
noun [Latin , See Conceive.]
1. The act of conceiving; the first formation of the embryo or fetus of an animal.
I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception Genesis 3:16.
2.
“The poet reads into the story of Ulysses the conception of an incurable desire to wander.”
irrational ×6 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin irrationalis; in and rationalis, from ratio.]
1. Not rational; void of reason or understanding. Brutes are irrational animals.
2. Not according to the dictates of reason; contrary to reason; absurd.
“But the thing which is irrational any one can understand.”
impulse ×6 Webster 1828
noun im'puls. [Latin impulsus, from impello. See Impel.]
1. Force communicated; the effect of one body acting on another.
“There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats grape-nuts on principle.”
circumstance ×6 Webster 1828
noun
1. Something attending, appendant, or relative to a fact, or case; a particular thing, which, though not essential to an action, in some way affects it; the same to a moral action, as accident to a natural substance; as, the…
“Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.”
humane ×5 Webster 1828
adjective [supra.] Having the feelings and dispositions proper to man; having tenderness, compassion, and a disposition to treat others with kindness; particularly in relieving them when in distress, or in captivity, when they ar…
“Shaw, on the practical side perhaps the most humane man alive, is in this sense inhumane.”
rigid ×5 Webster 1828
adjective [Gr. to be stiff; Latin frigeo, frigidus; Heb. to be still, to be stiff.]
1. Stiff; not pliant; not easily bent. It is applied to bodies or substances that are naturally soft or flexible, but not fluid.
“Have they produced in their universality anything grander or more beautiful than the things uttered by the fierce Ghibbeline Catholic, by the rigid Puritan schoolmaster?”
mystic ×5 Webster 1828
MYS'TIC
MYS'TICAL, adjective [Latin mysticus.] Obscure; hid; secret.
1. Sacredly obscure or secret; remote from human comprehension.
God hath revealed a way mystical and supernatural.
2.
“But this advantage the mystic morality must always have--it is always jollier.”
realism ×5 Webster 1913
1. As
opposed to nominalism, the doctrine that genera and species are
real things or entities, existing independently of our conceptions.
According to realism the Universal exists ante rem
(Plato), or in re (Aristotle). 2.
“What disgusted him, and very justly, was not the presence of a clear realism, but the absence of a clear idealism.”
accuse ×5 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin accuso, to blame or accuse; ad and causor, to blame, or accuse; causa, blame, suit, or process, cause. See Cause.]
1.
“No one, I imagine, will accuse the author of the INFERNO of an Early Victorian prudishness or a Podsnapian optimism.”
tame ×5 Webster 1828
adjective
1. That has lost its native wildness and shyness; mild; accustomed to man; domestic; as a tame deer; a tame bird.
2. Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
And you, tame slaves of the laborious plow.
3.
“The evil of militarism is that it shows most men to be tame and timid and excessively peaceable.”
eccentric ×5 Webster 1828
ECCEN'TRICAL, adjective [Latin eccentricus; ex, from , and centrum, center.]
1. Deviating or departing from the center.
2.
“He appears eccentric and grotesque because he will not accept the general belief that white is yellow.”
brace ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Latin brachium; Gr. the arm.]
1. In architecture, a piece of timber framed in with bevel joints, to keep the building from swerving either way. It extends like an arm from the post or main timber.
2.
“Shaw to be bracing and excellent.”
superiority ×5 Webster 1828
noun Pre-eminence; the quality of being more advanced or higher, greater or more excellent than another in any respect; as superiority of age, of rank or dignity, of attainments or excellence.
“A sentiment of superiority keeps us cool and practical; the mere facts would make our knees knock under as with religious fear.”
despise ×5 Webster 1828
.verb intransitive
1. To contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have the lowest opinion of.
Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7.
Else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Matthew 6:24.
2. To abhor.
“They did not realize the obvious verity that he who wishes to be strong must despise the strong.”
defect ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Latin To fail; to make or do.]
1. Want or absence of something necessary or useful towards perfection; fault; imperfection.
Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied.
We say, there are numerous defects in the plan,…
“Now this is, I say deliberately, the only defect in the greatness of Mr.”
greatness ×5 Webster 1828
noun Largeness of bulk, dimensions, number or quantity; as the greatness of a mountain, of an edifice, of a multitude, or of a sum of money.
“Now this is, I say deliberately, the only defect in the greatness of Mr.”
limitation ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Latin limitatio.]
1. The act of bounding or circumscribing.
2. Restriction; restraint; circumscription. The king consented to a limitation of his prerogatives.
“Shaw, not being easily pleased, decides to throw over humanity with all its limitations and go in for progress for its own sake.”
dreadful ×5 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Impressing great fear; terrible; formidable; as a dreadful storm, or dreadful night.
The great and dreadful day of the Lord. Malachi 4:5.
2. Awful; venerable.
How dreadful is this place. Genesis 48:1.
“He has come to the most dreadful conclusion a literary man can come to, the conclusion that the ordinary view is the right one.”
amusing ×5 Webster 1828
participle present tense or adjective s as z. Entertaining; giving moderate pleasure to the mind, so as to engage it; pleasing.
“It will be both clearer, however, and more amusing to quote Mr.”
admiration ×5 Webster 1828
noun Wonder mingled with pleasing emotions, as approbation, esteem, love or veneration; a compound emotion excited by something novel, rare, great, or excellent; applied to persons and their works.
“And the chivalrous chronicler makes Robin Hood receive the thrashing in a glow of admiration.”
admired ×5 Webster 1828
participle passive Regarded with wonder, mingled with pleasurable sensations, as esteem, love or reverence.
“In the coarsest ballads of the greenwood men are admired most when they defy, not only the king, but what is more to the point, the hero.”
College (34 words)
startling ×21 Webster 1828
participle present tense Suddenly impressing with fear or surprise.
“The man who expects nothing sees redder roses than common men can see, and greener grass, and a more startling sun.”
dogma ×21 Webster 1828
noun [Gr., to think; Latin ] A settled opinion; a principle, maxim or tenet; a doctrinal notion, particularly in matters of faith and philosophy; as the dogmas of the church; the dogmas of Plato.
Compliment my dogma and I will c…
“It is not the dogma of the reality of the other world that troubles him, but the dogma of the reality of this world.”
intellect ×11 Webster 1828
noun [Latin intellectus, from intelligo, to understand. See Intelligence.] That faculty of the human soul or mind, which receives or comprehends the ideas communicated to it by the senses or by perception, or by other means; the…
“But undoubtedly it was to this almost eerie innocence of the intellect that the great men of the great scientific period, which now appears to be closing, owed their enormous power and triumph.”
vigorous ×10 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Full of physical strength or active force; strong; lusty; as a vigorous youth; a vigorous body.
2. Powerful; strong; made by strength, either of body or mind; as a vigorous attack; vigorous exertions.
“Vigorous organisms talk not about their processes, but about their aims.”
solemn ×10 Webster 1828
adjective sol'em. [Latin solennis, form soleo, to be accustomed, to use, that is, to hold on or continue, as we have wont.]
1. Anniversary; observed once a year with religious ceremonies.
“In that temple the lights are low, the crowds kneel, the solemn anthems are uplifted.”
admirable ×10 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin admirabilis.]
To be admired; worthy of admiration; having qualities to excite wonder, with approbation, esteem or reverence; used of persons or things; as, the admirable structure of the body, or of the universe…
“Rhodes' prophecies about the Boer resistance are an admirable comment on how the "large ideas"”
sanity ×9 Webster 1828
noun [Latin sanitas. See Sane.] Soundness; particularly, a sound state of mind; the state of a mind in the perfect exercise of reason.
“He may even go mad; but he is going mad for the love of sanity.”
sincerity ×9 Webster 1828
noun [Latin sinceritas.]
1. Honesty of mind or intention; freedom from simulation or hypocrisy. We may question a man's prudence, when we cannot question his sincerity
2.
“Wells and the Giants We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.”
delusion ×9 Webster 1828
noun S as z.
1. The act of deluding; deception; a misleading of the mind. We are all liable to the delusions of artifice.
2.
“Possibly the most pathetic of all the delusions of the modern students of primitive belief is the notion they have about the thing they call anthropomorphism.”
bigotry ×9 Webster 1828
noun Obstinate or blind attachment to a particular creed, or to certain tenets; unreasonable zeal or warmth in favor of a party, sect or opinion; excessive prejudice.
1. The practice or tenet of a bigot.
“Bigotry may be roughly defined as the anger of men who have no opinions.”
scarcely ×8 Webster 1828
adverb
1. Hardly; scantly.
We scarcely think our miseries our foes.
2. Hardly; with difficulty.
Slowly he sails, and scarcely stems the tides.
“Examples are scarcely needed of this total levity on the subject of cosmic philosophy.”
frenzy ×8 Webster 1828
noun [Latin phrenitis, Gr. from mind, which is from moving, rushing. See Frantic.]
Madness; distraction; rage; or any violent agitation of the mind approaching to distraction.
All else is towering frenzy and distraction.
“The anchorite rolling on the stones in a frenzy of submission is a healthier person fundamentally than many a sober man in a silk hat who is walking down Cheapside.”
indifferent ×8 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin indifferens.]
1. Neutral; not inclined to one side, party or thing more than to another.
Cato knows neither of them,
Indifferent in his choice to sleep or die.
2.
“It is often said, and with perfect truth, that no one could read a play like GHOSTS and remain indifferent to the necessity of an ethical self-command.”
thinker ×7 Webster 1828
noun One who thinks; but chiefly, one who thinks in a particular manner; as a close thinker; a deep thinker; a coherent thinker
“Though not known as a political thinker, his political influence has circled the world.”
immoral ×7 Webster 1828
adjective [in and moral.] Inconsistent with moral rectitude; contrary to the moral or divine law; wicked; unjust; dishonest; vicious.
“The one genuinely dangerous and immoral way of drinking wine is to drink it as a medicine.”
ceremonial ×7 Webster 1828
adjective [See Ceremony.]
1. Relating to ceremony, or external rite; ritual; according to the forms of established rites; as ceremonial exactness.
“This total misunderstanding of the real nature of ceremonial gives rise to the most awkward and dehumanized versions of the conduct of men in rude lands or ages.”
temperament ×7 Webster 1828
noun [Latin temperamentum.]
1. Constitution; state with respect to the predominance of any quality; as the temperament of the body.
Bodies are denominated hot and cold, in proportion to the present temperament of that part of ou…
“Moore says, "Seen through my temperament, the day appeared fine."”
eighteenth ×6 Webster 1828
adjective 'ateenth. The next in order after the seventeenth.
“In the era of sentiment and fine words, at the end of the eighteenth century, men were really robust and effective.”
contemplate ×6 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin]
1. To view or consider with continued attention; to study; to meditate on. This word expresses the attention of the mind, but sometimes in connection with that of the eyes; as, to contemplate the heavens.
“It is more wholesome for this reason, that it can contemplate the idea of success or triumph in the hopeless fight towards the ethical ideal, in what Stevenson called, with his usual startling felicity, "the lost fight of virtue."”
defy ×6 Webster 1828
verb transitive
1. To dare; to provoke to combat or strife, by appealing to the courage of another; to invite one to contest; to challenge; as, Goliath defied the armies of Israel.
2.
“In the coarsest ballads of the greenwood men are admired most when they defy, not only the king, but what is more to the point, the hero.”
chiefly ×6 Webster 1828
adverb
1. Principally; eminently; in the first place.
It chiefly concerns us to obey the divine precepts.
2. For the most part.
In the parts of the kingdom where the estates of the dissenters chiefly lay.
“If we have no more turnip ghosts it is chiefly from the lack of turnips.”
hereditary ×6 Webster 1828
adjective
1. That has descended from an ancestor. He is in possession of a large hereditary estate.
2. That may descend from an ancestor to an heir; descendible to an heir at law. The crown of Great Britain is hereditary
3.
“Next to a genuine republic, the most democratic thing in the world is a hereditary despotism.”
distrust ×5 Webster 1828
verb transitive [dis and trust. See Mistrust.]
1. To doubt or suspect the truth, fidelity, firmness or sincerity of; not to confide in or rely on. We distrust a man, when we question his veracity, etc.
“His politics fitted with his deep distrust of concentrated wealth and power of any sort.”
ludicrous ×5 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin ludicer, from ludo, to sport.]
Sportive; burlesque; adapted to raise laughter, without scorn or contempt.
“It may be a question which of the two methods was the more cruel; there can be no kind of question which was the more ludicrous.”
coarse ×5 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Thick; large or gross in bulk; comparatively of large diameter; as coarse thread or yarn; coarse hair; coarse sand. This seems to be the primary sense of the word; opposed to fine or slender. Hence,
2.
“There can be no stronger sign of a coarse material health than the tendency to run after high and wild ideals; it is in the first exuberance of infancy that we cry for the moon.”
ecstasy ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. to stand.]
1. Primarily, a fixed state; a trance; a state in which the mind is arrested and fixed, or as we say, lost; a state in which the functions of the senses are suspended by the contemplation of some extraordinar…
“They were so filled with the beautiful vision of the man lying flat at the foot of the staircase that in that ecstasy the rest followed in a flash.”
worldly ×5 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Secular; temporal; pertaining to this world or life, in contradistinction to the life to come; as worldly pleasures; worldly affairs; worldly estate; worldly honor; worldly lusts. Titus 2:12.
2.
“In practice, the habit of generalizing and idealizing did not by any means mean worldly weakness.”
quarrel ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Latin queror, to complain, that is, to cry out with a loud voice. Hence we see the primary sense is the same as brawl. The Latin queror coincides in elements with to call, to bawl, to shout, and gearan, a complaint.
“I see that the men who killed each other about the orthodoxy of the Homoousion were far more sensible than the people who are quarrelling about the Education Act.”
writ ×5 Webster 1828
noun [from write.]
1. That which is written. In this sense, writ is particularly applied to the Scriptures, or books of the Old Testament and New Testament; as holy writ; sacred writ
2.
“And thus it is that when he writes of engineers, or sailors, or mules, or steam-engines, he writes at his best.”
wilder ×5 Webster 1828
verb transitive To lose or cause to lose the way or track; to puzzle with mazes or difficulties; to bewilder.
Long lost and wilderd in the maze of fate.
“If he dislikes the vows and bonds of marriage, he dislikes still more the fiercer bonds and wilder vows that are made by lawless love.”
sturdy ×5 Webster 1828
adjective [G., connected with; a stub.]
1. Hardy; stout; foolishly obstinate; implying coarseness or rudeness.
This must be done, and I would fain see mortal so sturdy as to gainsay.
A sturdy hardened sinner advances to the utmos…
“The Henleyites call for a sturdy and fighting England, and they go back to the fierce old stories of the sturdy and fighting English.”
folly ×5 Webster 1828
noun [See Fool.]
1. Weakness of intellect; imbecility of mind. want of understanding.
A fool layeth open his folly Proverbs 13:16.
2.
“But if the wisdom of Comte was insufficient, the folly of Comte was wisdom.”
imperialism ×5 Webster 1913
1. The power
or character of an emperor; imperial authority; the spirit of
empire. 2. The policy,
practice, or advocacy of seeking, or acquiescing in, the extension of
the control, dominion, or empire of a nation, as by the ac…
“And it is in that abyss of mental confusion, and in that alone, that the new Imperialism lives and moves and has its being.”
exaggeration ×5 Webster 1828
noun A heaping together; heap; accumulation.
1. In rhetoric, amplification; a representation of things beyond the truth; hyperbolical representation, whether of good or evil.
2.
“These may be exaggerations of beauty and courage, but beauty and courage are the unconscious ideals of aristocrats, even of stupid aristocrats.”
Rare & Period Words
aristocracy ×31 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. best, and to hold or govern.]
A form of government, in which the whole supreme power is vested in the principal persons of a state; or in a few men distinguished by their rank and opulence.
“But even an hereditary aristocracy may exhibit, by a sort of accident, from time to time some of the basically democratic quality which belongs to a hereditary despotism.”
paganism ×21 Webster 1828
noun Heathenism; the worship of false gods, or the system of religious opinions and worship maintained by pagans.
Men instructed from their infancy in the principles and duties of christianity, never sink to the degradation of pa…
“But if we do revive and pursue the pagan ideal of a simple and rational self-completion we shall end--where Paganism ended.”
proud ×16 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Having inordinate self-esteem; possessing a high or unreasonable conceit of one's own excellence, either of body or mind.
“The man who is proud of what is really creditable to him is the Pharisee, the man whom Christ Himself could not forbear to strike.”
poetical ×13 Webster 1828
Pedicle
Petechial
Pit-coal
“No one would pretend that white ties in the evening are primary and poetical.”
inclined ×11 Webster 1828
participle passive Having a leaning or tendency; disposed.
Inclined plane, in mechanics, is a plane that makes an oblique angle with the plane of the horizon; a sloping plane.
“Similarly, we should always be much more inclined to trust a solicitor who did not talk about conveyancing over the nuts and wine.”
undemocratic ×11 Modern
1. (adjective) not in agreement with or according to democratic doctrine or practice or ideals
“But above all we are undemocratic in our literature, as is proved by the torrent of novels about the poor and serious studies of the poor which pour from our publishers every month.”
frivolous ×10 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin frivlus, from the root of frio, to break into small pieces, to crumble; tero, trivi, to rub or wear out.]
Slight; trifling; trivial; of little weight, worth or importance; not worth notice; as a frivolous argume…
“He was frivolous about the twilight of the gods; but he is serious about the London omnibus.”
dogmatic ×10 Webster 1828
Dogmatical
Dogmatically
Dogmaticalness
“Progress happens to be one of our dogmas, and a dogma means a thing which is not thought dogmatic.”
paradoxical ×9 Webster 1828
adjective Having the nature of a paradox.
1. Inclined to tenets or notions contrary to received opinions; applied to persons.
“If he asks me why I introduce what he calls paradoxes into a philosophical problem, I answer, because all philosophical problems tend to become paradoxical.”
baronet ×9 Webster 1828
noun A dignity or degree of honor, next below a baron, and above a knight; ; having precedency of all knights except those of the garter, and being the only knighthood that is hereditary. The order was founded by James I.
“It never errs by making the mountain chasm too narrow or the title of the baronet insufficiently impressive.”
orthodoxy ×8 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. right, true, and opinion, from to think.]
1. Soundness of faith; a belief in the genuine doctrines taught in the Scriptures.
Basil bears full and clear testimony to Gregory's orthodoxy
2.
“I see that the men who killed each other about the orthodoxy of the Homoousion were far more sensible than the people who are quarrelling about the Education Act.”
prosaic ×8 Webster 1828
adjective s as z. [Latin prosaicus, from prosa, prose.]
Pertaining to prose; resembling prose; not restricted by numbers; applied to writings; as a prosaic composition.
“This plainness, this almost prosaic camaraderie, is the note of all very great minds.”
oligarchy ×8 Webster 1913
1. A form of government in
which the supreme power is placed in the hands of a few persons;
also, those who form the ruling few.
“But if we are to have any kind of oligarchy, let it be irrational oligarchy.”
aristocrats ×8 Webster 1828
noun One who favors an aristocracy in principle or practice; one who is a friend to an aristocratical form of government.
“From representing aristocrats as people who suppressed their feelings, it has been an easy step to representing aristocrats as people who had no feelings to suppress.”
solemnity ×8 Webster 1828
noun
1. A rite or ceremony annualy performed with religious reverence. Great was the cause; our old solemnities from no blind zeal or fond tradition rise, but sav'd from death, our Arguves yearly pay these grateful honors to the…
“The only answer possible to the fierce and glad attack of sincerity is the miserable answer of solemnity.”
slum ×7 Webster 1913
1. A foul back street of a
city, especially one filled with a poor, dirty, degraded, and often
vicious population; any low neighborhood or dark retreat; -- usually
in the plural; as, Westminster slums are haunts for
theives.
“The slum novelist is content with pointing out that to the eye of his particular class a pickaxe looks dirty and a pewter pot looks dirty.”
slums ×7 Webster 1913
1. A foul back street of a
city, especially one filled with a poor, dirty, degraded, and often
vicious population; any low neighborhood or dark retreat; -- usually
in the plural; as, Westminster slums are haunts for
theives.
“They are not a description of the state of the slums.”
decadence ×7 Webster 1828
DECA'DENCY, noun Decay.
“England exhibited this symptom of decadence very badly in the war with the Transvaal; but America exhibited it worse in the war with Spain.”
doubtless ×7 Webster 1828
adjective Free from fear of danger; secure.
Pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure.
DOUBTLESS, adverb Without doubt or question; unquestionably.
The histories of Christ by the evangelists are doubtless authentic.
“Doubtless men flee from small environments into lands that are very deadly.”
materialistic ×7 Webster 1913
1. Of or pertaining to materialism or
materialists; of the nature of materialism.
“That our modern statesmen are materialistic is nothing against their being also morbid.”
militarism ×7 Webster 1913
1. A military state or condition; reliance on
military force in administering government; a military
system. 2. The spirit and traditions of military
life.
“No one would think it narrow to say, "I lament their rise because they are Socialists, or Manchester Individualists, or strong believers in militarism and conscription."”
emphatically ×7 Webster 1828
adverb With emphasis; strongly; forcibly; in a striking manner.
1. According to appearance. [Not used.]
“In a word, he was a great artist; but emphatically not a great man.”
asceticism ×7 Webster 1913
1. The condition,
practice, or mode of life, of ascetics.
“It might be called a high ambition to wish to be an archangel; the man who entertained such an ideal would very possibly exhibit asceticism, or even frenzy, but not, I think, delusion.”
snobbishness ×7 Webster 1913
1. Vulgar
affectation or ostentation; mean admiration of mean things; conduct or
manners of a snob.
“The snobbishness of bad literature, then, is not servile; but the snobbishness of good literature is servile.”
melodrama ×7 Webster 1913
1. Formerly, a kind of drama having a
musical accompaniment to intensify the effect of certain scenes.
“For real school-life, real boyhood, is full of the things of which Eric is full--priggishness, a crude piety, a silly sin, a weak but continual attempt at the heroic, in a word, melodrama.”
favourite ×7 Modern
1. (adjective) preferred above all others and treated with partiality 2. (adjective) appealing to the general public 3. (noun) something regarded with special favor or liking
“But this is not only his favourite kind of beauty; it is also his favourite kind of conduct.”
frivolity ×6 Webster 1828
noun [See Frivolousness.]
“McCabe asks me why I import frivolity into a discussion of the nature of man, I answer, because frivolity is a part of the nature of man.”
fallacy ×6 Webster 1828
noun [Latin fallacia.]
1. Deceptive or false appearance; deceitfulness; that which misleads the eye or the mind. Detect the fallacy of the argument.
2. Deception; mistake.
“It is quite an old-fashioned fallacy to suppose that our objection to scepticism is that it removes the discipline from life.”
lamp-post ×6 Webster 1913
1. A post
(generally a pillar of iron) supporting a lamp or lantern for
lighting a street, park, etc.
“To the child the tree and the lamp-post are as natural and as artificial as each other; or rather, neither of them are natural but both supernatural.”
unpoetical ×6 Webster 1828
Unpedigreed
Unpoetic
Unpoetically
“We think a pillar-box unpoetical, because we have never seen it in a poem.”
narrowness ×6 Webster 1828
noun
1. Smallness of breadth or distance from side to side; as the narrowness of cloth, of a street or highway, of a stream or sea.
2.
“There can be quite as little doubt that such an accusation of narrowness is itself almost grotesquely narrow.”
reverent ×6 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Expressing reverence, veneration or submission; as reverent words or terms; a reverent posture in prayer; reverent behavior.
2. Submissive; humble; impressed with reverence.
They prostrate fell before him reverent
“Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools.”
honourable ×6 Modern
1. (adjective) worthy of being honored 2. (adjective) adhering to ethical and moral principles
“He desires to be Poet Laureate, a most sensible and honourable and public-spirited desire.”
idealist ×6 Webster 1913
1. One who idealizes;
one who forms picturesque fancies; one given to romantic
expectations. 2. One who holds the doctrine of
idealism.
“We say that the cure for the bigot is belief; we say that the cure for the idealist is ideas.”
scepticism ×6 Webster 1828
noun
1. The doctrines and opinions of the Pyrrhonists or sceptical philosophers; universal doubt; the scheme of philosophy which denies the certainty of any knowledge respecting the phenomena of nature.
2.
“And the scepticism of our time does not really destroy the beliefs, rather it creates them; gives them their limits and their plain and defiant shape.”
melodramatic ×6 Webster 1913
1. Of or pertaining to melodrama;
like or suitable to a melodrama; unnatural in situation or
action.
“We must become melodramatic, and see them from the inside.”
immeasurably ×6 Webster 1828
adverb To an extent not to be measured; immensely; beyond all measure.
“To very great minds the things on which men agree are so immeasurably more important than the things on which they differ, that the latter, for all practical purposes, disappear.”
servile ×6 Webster 1828
adjective [Latin servilis, from servio, to serve.]
1. Such as pertains to a servant or slave; slavish; mean; such as proceeds from dependence; as servile fear; servile obedience.
2.
“The old-fashioned halfpenny romance where the duchesses sparkled with diamonds was not servile; but the new romance where they sparkle with epigrams is servile.”
ritualists ×6 Webster 1828
noun One skilled in the ritual.
“All men, then, are ritualists, but are either conscious or unconscious ritualists.”
fanaticism ×6 Webster 1828
noun Excessive enthusiasm; wild and extravagant notions of religion; religious frenzy.
“Briefly, then, we dismiss the two opposite dangers of bigotry and fanaticism, bigotry which is a too great vagueness and fanaticism which is a too great concentration.”
despotism ×6 Webster 1828
noun
1. Absolute power; authority unlimited and uncontrolled by men, constitution or laws, and depending alone on the will of the prince; as the despotism of a Turkish sultan.
2.
“Kruger was at the head of a great military despotism, or that men are graminivorous, or that Bacon wrote Shakespeare.”
heretics ×5 Webster 1828
noun
1. A person under any religion, but particularly the christian, who holds and teaches opinions repugnant to the established faith, or that which is made the standard of orthodoxy.
“THE END End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heretics, by Gilbert K.”
to-day ×5 Webster 1913
1. On this day; on the present day. 2. The present day.
“To-day it hesitates, lightheartedly enough, but every serious thinker knows how momentous the decision may be.”
generalizations ×5 Webster 1828
noun The act of extending from particulars to generals; the act of making general.
“Making generalizations is what makes him a man.”
epigram ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. inscription; a writing.] A short poem treating only of one thing, and ending with some lively, ingenious and natural thought.
“Thus Senator Budge, who threw his false teeth in the air every time he made an epigram, won the solid approval of American working-men."”
realists ×5 Webster 1828
noun A scholastic philosopher, who maintains that things and not words, are the objects of dialectics; opposed to nominal or nominalist.
RE'AL, noun A small Spanish coin of the value of forty maravedis; but its value is differen…
“Her tribal kinship is with the country of Teniers and Maarten Maartens--that is, with a country of realists.”
vagueness ×5 Webster 1913
1. The quality or state of
being vague.
“Briefly, then, we dismiss the two opposite dangers of bigotry and fanaticism, bigotry which is a too great vagueness and fanaticism which is a too great concentration.”
orator ×5 Webster 1828
noun [Latin]
1. A public speaker. In ancient Rome, orators were advocates for clients in the forum and before the senate and people. They were employed in causes of importance instead of the common patron.
2.
“The aim of the sculptor is to convince us that he is a sculptor; the aim of the orator, is to convince us that he is not an orator.”
chivalrous ×5 Webster 1828
adjective [See Chivalry.] Pertaining to chivalry, or knight errantry; warlike; bold; gallant.
“And the chivalrous chronicler makes Robin Hood receive the thrashing in a glow of admiration.”
uproarious ×5 Webster 1913
1. Making, or
accompanied by, uproar, or noise and tumult; as, uproarious
merriment.
“And I should regard any mind which had not got the habit in one form or another of uproarious thinking as being, from the full human point of view, a defective mind.”
favour ×5 Modern
1. (noun) an act of gracious kindness 2. (noun) souvenir consisting of a small gift given to a guest at a party 3. (noun) an advantage to the benefit of someone or something
“To have a party in favour of union and a party in favour of separation is as absurd as to have a party in favour of going upstairs and a party in favour of going downstairs.”
hero-worship ×5 Modern
1. (verb) love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess
“Hero-worship is certainly a generous and human impulse; the hero may be faulty, but the worship can hardly be.”
aesthetes ×5 Webster 1913
1. One who makes much or overmuch of sthetics.
“This bias against morality among the modern aesthetes is nothing very much paraded.”
ritualist ×5 Webster 1828
noun One skilled in the ritual.
“The first is called a ritualist because he invents and remembers one rite; the other is called an anti-ritualist because he obeys and forgets a thousand.”
innumerable ×5 Webster 1828
Innumerability
Innumerableness
Innumerably
“One might give innumerable examples of the essentially unsympathetic and unpopular quality of these realistic writers.”
idealists ×5 Webster 1913
1. One who idealizes;
one who forms picturesque fancies; one given to romantic
expectations. 2. One who holds the doctrine of
idealism.
“One possible distinction, for instance, could be effected by saying that humanity is divided into conscious idealists and unconscious idealists.”
aristocratic ×5 Webster 1828
ARISTOCRAT'ICAL, adjective
1. Pertaining to aristocracy; consisting in a government of nobles, or principal men; as an aristocratic constitution.
2.
“As I have pointed out elsewhere in this book, the expert is more aristocratic than the aristocrat, because the aristocrat is only the man who lives well, while the expert is the man who knows better.”
rationalists ×5 Webster 1828
noun One who proceeds in his disquisitions and practice wholly upon reason.
“Being full of that kindliness which should come at the end of everything, even of a book, I apologize to the rationalists even for calling them rationalists.”
satirist ×5 Webster 1828
noun One who writes satire.
Wycherly, in his writings, is the sharpest satirist of his time.
“a poem in which the satirist feels that he is satirising the weaknesses which belong specially to literary genius.”
costermonger ×5 Webster 1913
1. An apple seller;
a hawker of, or dealer in, any kind of fruit or vegetables; a
fruiterer.
bigoted ×5 Webster 1828
adjective Obstinately and blindly attached to some creed, opinion, practice or ritual; unreasonably devoted to a system or party, and illiberal towards the opinions of others.
“Nobody would think it bigoted to say of a people, "I distrust their influence because they are Protectionists."”
unimportant ×4 Webster 1828
adjective
1. Not important; not of great moment.
2. Not assuming airs of dignity.
“For even if reality could be proved to be misleading, it still could not be proved to be unimportant or unimpressive.”
sentimentalists ×4 Webster 1828
noun One that affects sentiment, fine feeling or exquisite sensibility.
“It is also true that all the most typically English men of action were sentimentalists, if possible, more sentimental.”
mediocrity ×4 Webster 1828
noun [Latin mediocritas, from mediocris, middling; medius, middle.]
1. A middle state or degree; a moderate degree or rate. A mediocrity of condition is most favorable to morals and happiness.
“Every man, however wise, who begins by worshipping success, must end in mere mediocrity.”
opportunism ×4 Webster 1913
1. The art or practice of taking advantage of
opportunities or circumstances, or of seeking immediate advantage
with little regard for ultimate consequences.
“In her politics she has broken up exactly as England has broken up, into a bewildering opportunism and insincerity.”
to-morrow ×4 Webster 1828
noun [to and morrow.] The day after the present.
One to-day is worth two to-morrows.
TOM'PION, noun The stopper of a cannon. [See Tampion.]
“We may also call it a very old club in the light of the fact that it will most probably go bankrupt to-morrow.”
temperance ×4 Webster 1828
noun [Latin temperantia, from tempero.]
1. Moderation; particularly, habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; as temperance in eating and drinking;…
“Temperance consists in finding out the proper limit of a particular indulgence and adhering to that.”
profess ×4 Webster 1828
verb transitive [Latin professus, profiteor; pro and fateor.]
1. To make open declaration of; to avow or acknowledge.
Let no man who professes himself a christian, keep so heathenish a family as not to see God by daily worshippe…
“They did not profess to mirror the mind of a dog-headed man, to share his tenderest secrets, or mount with his most celestial musings.”
gaiety ×4 Webster 1913
1. Same as
Gayety.
“He and those he has influenced do not see that if we are to be truly gay, we must believe that there is some eternal gaiety in the nature of things.”
phraseology ×4 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. phrase, and to speak.]
1. Manner of expression; peculiar words used in a sentence; diction.
2. A collection of phrases in a language.
“Ordinary sensible phraseology sometimes calls black white, it certainly calls yellow white and green white and reddish-brown white.”
ingenuity ×4 Webster 1828
noun The quality or power of ready invention; quickness or acuteness in combining ideas, or in forming new combinations; ingeniousness; skill; used of persons.
“A great many people talk as if this claim of ours, that all things are poetical, were a mere literary ingenuity, a play on words.”
by-product ×4 Webster 1913
1. A secondary or
additional product; something produced, as in the course of a manufacture,
in addition to the principal product.
“This is, indeed, only a very paltry by-product of humility, but it is a product of humility, and, therefore, it is successful.”
became ×4 Webster 1828
preterit tense of become [See Become.]
“Thus the Pretorian guard became more and more important in Rome as Rome became more and more luxurious and feeble.”
valour ×4 Modern
1. (noun) the qualities of a hero or heroine
“I doubt whether we should have enough individual valour and spirit even to have liberty.”
carelessness ×4 Webster 1828
noun Heedlessness; inattention; negligence; manner without care.
“He had no god-like carelessness; he never forgot himself; his whole life was, to use his own expression, an arrangement.”
pathos ×4 Webster 1828
noun [Gr. to suffer.] Passion; warmth or vehemence, in a speaker; or in language, that which excites emotions and passions.
“It is true that the humour of Micawber is good literature and that the pathos of little Nell is bad.”
astonishment ×4 Webster 1828
noun Amazement; confusion of mind from fear, surprise or admiration, at an extraordinary or unexpected event.
“But I will have nothing to do with simplicity which lacks the fear, the astonishment, and the joy alike.”
stoical ×4 Webster 1828
STOICAL adjective
1. Pertaining to the Stoics or to their doctrines.
2. Not affected by passion; unfeeling; manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain.
“Even aristocracy, I think, was not quite so stoical in the days when it was really strong.”
splendour ×4 Modern
1. (noun) the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand 2. (noun) a quality that outshines the usual
“Great joy has in it the sense of immortality; the very splendour of youth is the sense that it has all space to stretch its legs in.”
childlike ×4 Webster 1828
adjective Resembling a child or that which belongs to children; becoming a child; meek; submissive; dutiful; as childlike obedience.
“Until we understand that original dark, in which we have neither sight nor expectation, we can give no hearty and childlike praise to the splendid sensationalism of things.”
sociologists ×4 Webster 1913
1. One who
treats of, or devotes himself to, the study of sociology.
“But when we are sociologists we are addressing the normal man, we are addressing humanity.”
sentimentalism ×4 Webster 1913
1. The quality of being sentimental; the
character or behavior of a sentimentalist; sentimentality.
“Here we have a state of things which no man in his senses would ever dream of wishing to continue if he had not been bewitched by the sentimentalism of the mere word "union."”
commandment ×4 Webster 1828
noun
1. A command; a mandate; an order or injunction given by authority; charge; precept.
Why do ye transgress the commandment of God.
“And those who find in the Bible the commandment can find in the Bible any number of the jokes.”
pessimism ×4 Webster 1913
1. The opinion
or doctrine that everything in nature is ordered for or tends to the
worst, or that the world is wholly evil; -- opposed to
optimism. 2. A disposition to take the least hopeful
view of things.
“The question of whether Swift was funny in his irony is quite another sort of question to the question of whether Swift was serious in his pessimism.”
reverence ×4 Webster 1828
noun [Latin reverentia.]
1. Fear mingled with respect and esteem; veneration.
When quarrels and factions are carried openly, it is a sign that the reverence of government is lost.
The fear acceptable to God, is a filial fear, an…
“Democracy is not founded on pity for the common man; democracy is founded on reverence for the common man, or, if you will, even on fear of him.”
fireworks ×4 Webster 1828
noun Usually in the plural, fireworks.
Preparations of gun-powder, sulphur and other inflammable materials, used for making explosions in the air, on occasions of public rejoicing; pyrotechnical exhibitions.
“And I say that the Universe as I see it, at any rate, is very much more like the fireworks at the Crystal Palace than it is like his own philosophy.”