Making fine distinctions: Using the right word versus the almost-right word

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Twain once said:

 

“The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter - it’s the difference between the lightning-bug & the lightning.”

 

At the Boise Public Library I got an excellent, little, two-hundred page, 2024 book by Eli Burnstein titled Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties, and Subtle Shades of Meaning. It has a long subtitle, An Assorted Synonymy & Encyclopedia of Commonly Confused Objects, Ideas & Words, Distinguished with the Aid of illustrations [line drawings by Liana Finck]. I’m enjoying learning about those distinctions.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above via my illustration, page 179 distinguishes between poisonous and venomous, which also is shown on the cover, as seen in an excerpt at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. And page 16 distinguishes between ethics and morality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the distinctions are best shown via Venn diagrams, like page 173 where canapes are a subset of hors d’oeuvres, and on page 32 comparing how other types of numbers fit inside real numbers.

 

Images of canapes, hors d’oeuvres, and a death cap mushroom came from Wikimedia Commons. The snake was adapted from an image at Openclipart. From Andrew Comstock’s 1846 book, A System of Elocution, I got the images for ethics (page 88 #32) and morality (page 90 #43).