To dissert is to expatiate, to engraft (dis and serere) consequential matter on the original question. To discuss is to examine throughout, to shake to the bottom (dis and cutere) the topic of controversy. Authors dissert, and critics discuss.

Disagreement. Dissention. Division. Discord.

Variation of opinion is usually progressive in this order. Disagreement is the cessation of acquiescence, dissention a contrariety of sentiment, division a separation of conduct, and discord an alienation of affection. We may disagree before we proclaim our dissent, dissent without dividing, and divide without discord.

Sumptuous. Sumptuary.

That which causes expense is sumptuous; that which relates to expense is sumptuary. A sumptuous feast, a sumptuous campaign. Sumptuary

ledgers, sumptuary laws.

To confute. To refute.

To pour cold water upon hot freely, so as to make a tepid mixture, is confutare; to pour cold water' upon hot cautiously, so as to prevent the dissipation, but not the boiling, is refutare: futare being the frequentative of fundere to pour. To confute, then, is to pour together, and to refute is to pour against; but in our language these words in their proper sense do not occur. In metaphor, to confute is to neutralize argumentation by the reply opposed; and to refute is to thwart continually without allaying the character of the original propositions.

For either party he'd dispute,

Confute, change hands, and still confute.

Butler,

It was impossible to refute such multitudes. Addison.

Fight. Combat. Engagement. Battle.

Fight is applicable alike to the combat of two, to the engagement of several men, or to the battle of multitudes. A fight may be accidental; a combat, an engagement, is pre-arranged. A battle is usually preceded by the engagement of subordinate wings of the army. Fight and engagement do not necessarily imply the use of weapons; combat and battle do. Engagement is applied to naval conflict, battle only to territorial.

Fight is supposed by Adelung to derive from some word signifying fist. Engagement comes from gage a pledge. Combat is from con together and battre to strike or beat with a weapon; and of battre bats tle is the frequentative.

Dumb. Silent. Mute.

He is dumb, who cannot speak; he is silent, who does not speak; he is mute, whose silence is com pulsory. Mute is a participle which means rendered dumb, from whatever cause. Eastern slaves, whose tongues have been cut away that they may be safe confidants, are called mutes. Those only are called dumb, who are so from birth. The poet should personify observation as silent; secresy as mute; ignorance as dumb.

Benediction. Beatitude. Blessing. Bliss.

Benediction bears that relation to beatitude which benevolence bears to beneficence: the one is the wish, the other the realization. The benediction of the priest. The beatitude of heaven.

Blessing and bliss are saxon words, answering nearly to the latin words benediction and beatitude. The blessing of the priest. The bliss of heaven. Yet there is this difference between benediction and blessing; that whereas benediction is only used

of good wishes (being derived from bene dicere, to say good) blessing is used of good things. The blessings of a plentiful harvest. The blessing of sun

shine.

And whereas beatitude is only used of those who have been rendered happy (being derived from the participle beatus, made happy), bliss is used of those who make themselves so. The bliss of intoxication. The bliss of love..

If the latin word had taken, which Cicero coined and could not naturalize, beatitas, we should probably have imported it, and have had two more synonyms, beati y and blessedness, to include in this list. These two words would have been identical in meaning. Choaked. Throttled. Strangled. Stifled. Smother. ed. Suffocated.

Here are six words, describing stoppage of breath. He is choaked, whose respiration is interrupted from within whose wind-pipe is irritated or closed by food swallowed amiss, or by such internal affection as produces an effort at coughing, He is throttled, whose respiration is checked in the throat, whether from without or within. le is strangled, whose respiration as interrupted from without by squeezingthe neck, whose wind-pipe is compressed by a noose, or a bowstring. He is, stifled, whose respiration is stopped by repeated efforts. He is sinothered, whose respiration is interrupted at the orifice by covering the month and nostrils. He is suffocated, whose respiration is attacked in the lungs by the introduc tion of irrespirable or azotic airs..

Clouds of dust did choak..

Waller

b. Contending troops. The throttling quinsey 'tis my star appoints. Dryden. Starnig full ghastly like a strangled man. Shakspeare. The air we drew out left the more room for the stifling steam of the coals

Boyle.

Children have been smothered in bed by the care lessness of nurses. Trusler.

Miners are often suffocated by damps.

Aceocan (whence to choak) is to swell out the cheek, to cough.

Throttle, more properly throttel, is the throat instrument, the larynx, or uvula; from this substantive derives the verb, which has corruptly assumed a frequentative form, le for el. At the upper extreme it hath no larynx, or throttel, to qualify the sound. Brown's Vulgar Errors.

Strangle is the frequentative of stringere, to compress, to grasp.

Stifle is the frequentative of to stop; the French etouffer and etouper, whence our stifle and stop are both derived from etoupe or estoup (atin stupa) a bunch of moss or tow, with which the chinks of vessels are caulked or stopped.

Smut, whence to smother, is the silth of a chim ney. Smutty herrings, smutty hams, are such as have been sincke-dried. The inside is So suurted with dust and smoke, that neither the marble, silver, nor brass works show themselves. Addison.

To smother is to cover, as with soot and asbes; hence an idea of concealment adheres to the word. Smother the embers that they may not burn out before our return. He must smother that scandalous anecdote, as he can.

To sufio ate is to put under fire (sub foco) and thence to destroy as fie-damps destroy.

Flesh. Meat. Victuals.

Flesh is the natural composition of an animal; meat is any kind of tood, although commonly used of Besh-meat, or butcher's meat; victual is a ratio of provision, meat served in portions. The flesh of a woodcock is an exquisitely delicate meat.

Grain is the meat of birds.

Fish and vegetsbies, according to the Catholics, are the proper meats during Lent. He was not able to keep that place three days for lack of victuals. bad musty victrais, and he holp to eat them.

You

Flesh is a word common to all the gothic dialects. Wachter thinks it etymologically connected with leik body; in which case anal origin is the essential idea. Ihre thinks it etymologically connected with flek, bacon: in which case cutting up is the essential idea. Flitch and flesh may have been one word; yet it is less harsh to suppose it connected with the verb to flush, and to place in redness the essential idea.

Meat signifies nourishment: in the following paszage milk is called a meat.

Le linge, orné de fleurs fut couvert pour tous mêts, D'un peu de lait, de fruits, et des dons de Ceres. Lafontaine.

Victual is from the French victuaille, which is from the Italian victuaglia, and this from the Latin vectigal, which is apparently derived from vescor, to feed, and meant, first a requisition of provisions, then a requisition of money, then tribute.

Austerity. Severity. Rigour.

"Austerity (says Blair) relates to the manner of living; severity, of thinking; rigour, of punishing. To austerity is opposed effeminacy: to severity, relaxation; to rigor, clemency. A hermit is austere in his life; a casuist, severe in his decision; a judge, rigorous in his sentence."

In this attempt at discrimination there is little exactness. Austerity is applied not only to habit, but to doctrine, and to infliction. Solitary confinement is a severe form of life, and a severe punish

nt. Rigid observances, rigid opinions, are oftener spoken of than rigid sentences.