| | | SECTION I. NATURE OF IDEAS COMMUNICATED |
[important part of the meaning] substance; gist, essence, marrow, spirit &c. Intrinsicality.
matter; subject, subject matter; argument, text, sum and substance.
general meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true &c. (exact) Truth [Object of knowledge] meaning, honest &c. Veracity meaning, prima facie &c. (manifest) Manifestation meaning[Lat]; letter of the law.
literally; after acceptation.
synonym; implication, allusion &c. (latency) Latency; suggestion &c. (information) Information; figure of speech &c. Metaphor; acceptation &c. (interpretation) Interpretation.
V. mean, signify, express; import, purport; convey, imply, breathe, indicate, bespeak, bear a sense; tell of, speak of; touch on; point to, allude to; drive at; involve &c. (latency) Latency; declare &c. (affirm) Affirmation.
understand by &c. (interpret) Interpretation.
Adj. meaning &c. v.; expressive, suggestive, allusive; significant, significative[obs3], significatory[obs3]; pithy; full of meaning, pregnant with meaning.
declaratory &c. Affirmation; intelligible &c. Intelligibility; literal; synonymous; tantamount &c. (equivalent) Equality [Sameness of quantity or degree]; implied &c. (latent) Latency; explicit &c. Manifestation.
Adv. to that effect; that is to say &c. (being interpreted) Interpretation.
empty sound, dead letter, vox et praeterea nihil[Lat]; "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; "sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin[obs3], platitude, niaiserie[obs3]; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae[Lat]; twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; poppy-cock [U. S.]; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity &c. Absurdity; vagueness &c. (unintelligibility) Unintelligibility.
[routine or reflexive statements without substantive thought, esp. legal] boilerplate.
V. mean nothing; be unmeaning &c. adj.; twaddle, quibble, scrabble.
Adj. unmeaning; meaningless, senseless; nonsensical; void of sense &c. Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed].
inexpressive, unexpressive; vacant; not significant &c. Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed]; insignificant.
trashy, washy, trumpery, trivial, fiddle-faddle, twaddling, quibbling.
unmeant, not expressed; tacit &c. (latent) Latency.
inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.
V. be intelligible &c. adj.; speak for itself, speak volumes; tell its own tale, lie on the surface.
render intelligible &c. adj.; popularize, simplify, clear up; elucidate &c. (explain) Interpretation.
understand, comprehend, take, take in; catch, grasp, follow, collect, master, make out; see with half an eye, see daylight, see one's way; enter into the ideas of; come to an understanding.
Adj. intelligible; clear, clear as day, clear as noonday; lucid; perspicuous, transpicuous[obs3]; luminous, transparent.
easily understood, easy to understand, for the million, intelligible to the meanest capacity, popularized.
plain, distinct, explicit; positive; definite &c. (precise) Truth [Object of knowledge].
graphic; expressive &c. (meaning) Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed]; illustrative &c. (explanatory) Interpretation.
unambiguous, unequivocal, unmistakable &c. (manifest) Manifestation; unconfused; legible, recognizable; obvious &c. Manifestation.
Adv. in plain terms, in plain words, in plain English.
Phr. he that runs may read &c. (manifest) Manifestation.
# 519. Unintelligibility. - N. unintelligibility; incomprehensibility, imperspicuity[obs3]; inconceivableness, vagueness &c. adj.; obscurity; ambiguity &c. Equivocalness [Having a double sense]; doubtful meaning; uncertainty &c. Uncertainty; perplexity &c. (confusion) Disorder [Absence, or want of Order, &c]; spinosity[obs3]; obscurum per obscurius[Lat]; mystification &c. (concealment) Concealment; latency &c. Latency; transcendentalism.
paradox, oxymoron; riddle, enigma, puzzle &c. (secret) Secret; diagnus vindice nodus[Lat]; sealed book; steganography[obs3], freemasonry.
pons asinorum[Lat], asses' bridge; high Dutch, Greek, Hebrew; jargon &c. (unmeaning) Unmeaningness [Absence of meaning].
V. be unintelligible &c. adj.; require explanation &c. Interpretation; have a doubtful meaning, pass comprehension.
render unintelligible &c. adj.; conceal &c Concealment; darken &c. Darkness; confuse &c. (derange) Derangement [Subversion of Order; bringing into disorder]; perplex &c. (bewilder) Uncertainty.
not understand &c. Intelligibility; lose, lose the clue; miss; not know what to make of, be able to make nothing of, give it up; not be able to account for, not be able to make either head or tail of; be at sea &c. (uncertain) Uncertainty; wonder &c. Wonder; see through a glass darkly &c. (ignorance) Ignorance.
not understand one another; play at cross purposes &c. (misinterpret) Misinterpretation.
Adj. unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable[obs3], inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible[obs3], incomprehensible; insolvable[obs3], insoluble; impenetrable.
illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret) Secret; indecipherable.
obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; ; opaque, dense; undiscernible &c. (invisible) Invisibility[obs3]; misty &c. (opaque) Opacity; hidden &c Concealment; latent &c Latency.
indefinite, garbled &c (indistinct) Invisibility; perplexed &c. (confused) Disorder [Absence, or want of Order, &c]; undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious; mystic, mystical; acroamatic[obs3], acroamatical[obs3]; metempirical; transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed.
inconceivable, inconceptible[obs3]; searchless[obs3]; above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension; beyond one's depth; unconceived.
inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.
unpredictable, unforeseeable.
Phr. it's Greek to me. <- p. 156 ->
Sphinx, Delphic oracle.
equivocation &c. (duplicity) Falsehood; white lie, mental reservation &c. (concealment) Concealment; paltering.
V. be -equivocal &c. adj.; have two meanings &c. Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed]; equivocate &c. (alter) Falsehood.
Adj. equivocal, ambiguous, amphibolous[obs3], homonymous[obs3]; double-tongued &c. (lying) Falsehood; enigmatical, indeterminate.
Phr. on the one hand, on the other hand.
phrase &c. Phrase; figure, trope, metaphor, enallage[obs3], catachresis[obs3]; metonymy[Gram], synecdoche[Semant]; autonomasia[Obs]!, irony, figurativeness &c. adj.; image, imagery; metalepsis[obs3], type, anagoge[obs3], simile, personification, prosopopoeia[obs3], allegory, apologue[obs3], parable, fable; allusion, adumbration; application.
exaggeration , hyperbole &c. Exaggeration.
association, association of ideas (analogy) Analogy V. employ -metaphor &c. n.; personify, allegorize, adumbrate, shadow forth, apply, allude to.
Adj. metaphorical, figurative, catachrestical[obs3], typical, tralatitious[obs3], parabolic, allegorical, allusive, anagogical[obs3]; ironical; colloquial; tropical.
Adv. so to speak, so to say, so to express oneself; as it were.
Phr. mutato nomine de te fabula narratur [Lat][Horace].
translation; rendering, rendition; redition[obs3]; literal translation, free translation; key; secret; clew &c. (indication) Indication; clavis[obs3], crib, pony, trot [U. S.].
exegesis; expounding, exposition; hermeneutics; comment, commentary; inference &c. (deduction) Judgment [Conclusion]; illustration, exemplification; gloss, annotation, scholium[obs3], note; elucidation, dilucidation[Obs]; eclaircissement[Fr], mot d'enigme[Fr].
[methods of interpreting - list] symptomatology[Med], semiology, semeiology[obs3], semiotics; metoposcopy[obs3], physiognomy; paleography &c. (philology) Language; oneirology acception[obs3], acceptation, acceptance; light, reading, lection, construction, version.
equivalent, equivalent meaning &c. Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed]; synonym; paraphrase, metaphrase[obs3]; convertible terms, apposition; dictionary &c. Word; polyglot.
V. interpret, explain, define, construe, translate, render; do into, turn into; transfuse the sense of.
find out &c. Discovery [Result of search or inquiry] the meaning &c. Meaning [Thing signified] [Idea to be conveyed] of; read; spell out, make out; decipher, unravel, disentangle; find the key of, enucleate, resolve, solve; read between the lines.
account for; find the cause, tell the cause &c. Cause [Constant antecedent] of; throw light upon, shed light upon, shed new light upon, shed fresh light upon; clear up, clarify, elucidate.
illustrate, exemplify; unfold, expound, comment upon, annotate; popularize &c. (render intelligible) Intelligibility.
take in a particular sense, understand in a particular sense, receive in a particular sense, accept in a particular sense; understand by, put a construction on, be given to understand.
Adj. explanatory, expository; explicative, explicatory; exegetical[obs3]; construable.
polyglot; literal; paraphrastic, metaphrastic[obs3]; consignificative[obs3], synonymous; equivalent &c. Equality [Sameness of quantity or degree].
Adv. in explanation &c. n.; that is to say, id est, videlicet, to wit, namely, in other words.
literally, strictly speaking; in plain, in plainer terms, in plainer words, in plainer English; more simply.
misrepresentation, perversion, exaggeration &c. Exaggeration; false coloring, false construction; abuse of terms; parody, travesty; falsification &c. (lying) Falsehood.
V. misinterpret, misapprehend, misunderstand, misconceive, misspell, mistranslate, misconstrue, misapply; mistake &c. Error.
misrepresent, pervert; explain wrongly, misstate; garble &c. (falsify) Falsehood; distort, detort[Obs]; travesty, play upon words; stretch the sense, strain the sense, stretch the meaning, strain the meaning, wrest the sense, wrest the meaning; explain away; put a bad construction on, put a false construction on; give a false coloring.
be at cross purposes, play at cross purposes.
Adj. misinterpreted &c. v.; untranslated, untranslatable.
# 524. Interpreter. - N. interpreter; expositor, expounder, exponent, explainer; demonstrator.
scholiast, commentator, annotator; metaphrast[obs3], paraphrast[obs3]; glossarist[obs3], prolocutor.
spokesman, speaker, mouthpiece.
dragoman, courier, valet de place, cicerone, showman; oneirocritic[obs3]; (Edipus; oracle &c. Oracle)
| | | SECTION I. NATURE OF IDEAS COMMUNICATED |