Döderlein's Hand-book of Latin Synonymes
Döderlein's Hand-book of Latin Synonymes is a reference work for serious students of Latin, translated by Rev. H. H. Arnold from Ludwig von Döderlein's monumental six-volume study of Latin synonyms and etymologies, on which the German philologist labored for more than twelve years. The book takes up clusters of words with similar meanings and patiently teases apart their differences, arranging them alphabetically from A to V. Where one word is generic and another specific, one literal and another figurative, one a prose term and another poetic, Döderlein draws the distinction precisely, often illuminating a Latin word by naming its opposite or pairing it with the nearest Greek equivalent.
At heart the book argues that meaning lives in delicate shades, and that a sentence can turn on the exact word a writer chose. By training the eye to weigh near-synonyms, it offers the classical student a fullness and precision otherwise unattainable, and restores some living interest to languages too often dismissed as dead. More than a dictionary, it is a sustained lesson in discrimination, observation, and the art of arbitrating between conflicting probabilities.
How it begins
If these characters do not display properly, or if the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure that the browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser’s default font. All brackets are in the original; this material seems to have been added by the translator. Outlined paragraphs were added by the transcriber. Links to cross-references in the Handbook lead to the entry word. Links in the Index lead to the top of the page. In all links, non-trivial errors are underlined in red with popup explanation. Double redirects such as Adamare , see Amare . Amare , see Diligere . are linked to the final destination word, again with popup explanation. Contents Handbook of Synonymes Index of Greek Words Errors and Inconsistencies DÖDERLEIN’S HAND-BOOK OF LATIN SYNONYMES. TRANSLATED BY REV. H. H. ARNOLD B.A. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY S. H. TAYLOR, LL.D. 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.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain.