_Form the Reference-Book Habit_

 

Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word--press your study until

you have mastered its individual shades of meaning and usage. Mere fluency is

sure to become despicable, but accuracy never. The dictionary contains the

crystallized usage of intellectual giants. No one who would write effectively

dare despise its definitions and discriminations. Think, for example, of the

different meanings of _mantle_, or _model_, or _quantity_. Any late edition of

an unabridged dictionary is good, and is worth making sacrifices to own.

 

Books of synonyms and antonyms--used cautiously, for there are few _perfect_

synonyms in any language--will be found of great help. Consider the shades of

meanings among such word-groups as _thief, peculator, defaulter, embezzler,

burglar, yeggman, robber, bandit, marauder, pirate_, and many more; or the

distinctions among _Hebrew, Jew, Israelite, and Semite_. Remember that no book

of synonyms is trustworthy unless used with a dictionary. "A Thesaurus of the

English Language," by Dr. Francis A. March, is expensive, but full and

authoritative. Of smaller books of synonyms and antonyms there are plenty.[33]

 

Study the connectives of English speech. Fernald's book on this title is a mine

of gems. Unsuspected pitfalls lie in the loose use of _and, or, for, while_, and

a score of tricky little connectives.

 

Word derivations are rich in suggestiveness. Our English owes so much to foreign