Chapter Preface to the First Edition of Prelims by Soule's Synonymes

Preface to the First Edition

The main design of this Dictionary is to provide a ready means of assistance when one is at a loss for a word or an expression that best suits a particular turn of thought or mood of the mind, or that may obviate an ungraceful repetition. Even practised and skilful writers are sometimes embarrassed in the endeavor to make a sentence more clear, simple, terse, or rhythmical, by the substitution of one form of diction for another. It is presumed that they, as well as novices in composition, will find the present work useful in overcoming difficulties of this sort.

As to the method of using it: Whenever a doubt arises in regard to the fitness of any word, and a better one is not readily suggested, let the writer turn to this word in its alphabetical place. Under it will be found the words and phrases, or some clew to the words and phrases, which, in any connection, have the same meaning as itself, or a meaning very nearly the same. That one of them which comes nearest to expressing the exact shade of thought in the writer's mind will be likely to arrest the attention and determine the choice.

In most cases, all the words that belong to any group will be found in that group. But in some instances, as when the same word falls into two or more groups that are near to each other, or when there are so many synonymes for a word that a repetition of every one of them under each in its alphabetical place would seem to be too formal and prolix, the inquirer is referred to some prominent word among them for a view of the whole. Under the word Blockhead, for example, reference is made to the word Dunce, under which will be found all the words that are synonymous with it. This example is given because it is the most marked one in our language of a multiplicity of terms for the same idea. Many nouns ending in ness, and adverbs ending in ly, have been omitted in their alphabetical places, for the reason that their synonymes are sufficiently indicated by the corresponding adjectives.

The aim has been to present at a single glance the words or modes of speech which denote the same object, or which express the same general idea, with only slight shades of difference. There has been no attempt at elaborate discussion of the nice distinctions that obtain between words apparently synonymous; but hints of such distinctions have been given whenever it was practicable to give them briefly in a parenthetical remark.

In preparing this Dictionary, free use has been made of the following works: Roget's Thesaurus of Words and Phrases; the Quarto Dictionaries of Webster and of Worcester; Crabb's Synonymes; Graham's Synonymes; Whately's Synonymes; Platt's Synonymes; the Dictionaries of Synonymes by Fenby, Sherer, Mackenzie, and Smith; the Medical Dictionaries of Dunglison and of Thomas; and the United States Dispensatory by Wood and Bache. It contains much, however, that has been gathered from a wide field of miscellaneous reading during a long series of years.

The author is under special obligations to his friends, Mr. Justin Winsor, Mr. William A. Wheeler, and Mr. Loomis J. Campbell, for the interest they have manifested in the progress of the work, and for their valuable suggestions and criticisms.

Brookline, Mass., 1871.