Style Tip: Synonyms

It will be seen from the foregoing wherein signs differ from words. For in a list of synonyms each word has a definite meaning inherent in itself, while a single sign may mean any one of its synonyms, according to the other signs with which it is placed, and which determine its precise meaning.

 The higher languages (i.e., those that have a more advanced, higher position in the linguistic scale) have many synonyms; words whose general meaning is the same but which at the same time have shades of difference.

These shades evoke a richness of means of expression of a language but their value is apparent only to those comparatively few in any community, gifted by a true discrimination in the choice of words to fit them exactly to their meanings. As primitive man however is by no means so discriminating and would see little difference in the shades of meaning conveyed to us by the words fear, fright, apprehension, panic, timidity, fearfulness, [and] terror, except in their comparative degrees; more or less fearful, all those meanings could be comprehended under the sign "fear" or "afraid,"