You have given a satisfactory definition. If on the other
hand you affirm, "A cigar is a roll of tobacco-leaves meant for smoking,"
you first designate the species and then merely imply the genus. Again you
have given a satisfactory definition; for you have permitted no doubt that
the genus is smoking-tobacco, and have prescribed such limits for the
species as exclude tobacco intended for a pipe or a cigarette.
In defining nouns by the genus-and-species method, restrict the genus to
the narrowest possible bounds. You will thus save the need for exclusions
later. Had you in your first definition of a cigar begun by saying that it
is tobacco, rather than smoking-tobacco, you would have violated this
principle; and you would have had to amplify the rest of your definition
in order to exclude chewing-tobacco, snuff, and the like.
EXERCISE - Definition
1. Define words of your own choosing in accordance with the principles
laid down in the preceding section of the text.
2. Define the following adjectives, adverbs, and verbs:
Miserable Rebuke Wise
Angrily Rapidly Boundless
Swim Paint Whiten
Haughtily Surly Causelessly
3.
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