Let us first establish this fact, and
afterwards see what bearing it has on our study of synonyms.
My friend says, "I hope you will have a good day." Does he mean an
enjoyable one in general? a profitable or lucrative one, in case I have
business in hand? a successful one, if I am selling stocks or buying a
house? Possibly he means a sunshiny day if I intend to play golf, a snowy
day if I plan to go hunting, a rainy day if my crops are drying up. The
ideas here are varied, even contradictory, enough; yet _good_ may be
used of every one of them. _Good_ is in truth so general a term that
we must know the attendant circumstances if we are to attach to it a
signification even approximately accurate. This does not at all imply that
_good is_ a term we may brand as useless. It implies merely that when
our meaning is specific we must set _good_ aside (unless
circumstances make its sense unmistakable) in favor of a specific word.
_Things is_ another very general term. In "Let us wash up the things"
it likely means dishes or clothes. In "Hang your things in the closet" it
likely means clothes. In "Put the things in the tool-box" it likely means
tools. In "Put the things in the sewing-basket" it likely means thread,
needles, and scissors.
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