English Synonyms and Antonyms — Idea to Imagination

_Idea_ is in Greek a _form_ or an _image_.

The word signified in early philosophical use the _archetype_ or primal _image_ which the Platonic philosophy supposed to be the _model_ or _pattern_ that existing objects imperfectly embody.

This high sense has nearly disappeared from the word _idea_, and has been largely appropriated by _ideal_, tho something of the original meaning still appears when in theological or philosophical language we speak of the _ideas_ of God.

The present popular use of _idea_ makes it to signify any product of mental _apprehension_ or activity, considered as an object of knowledge or thought; this coincides with the primitive sense at but a single point--that an _idea_ is mental as opposed to anything substantial or physical; thus, almost any mental product, as a _belief_, _conception_, _design_, _opinion_, etc. , may now be called an _idea_.

Compare FANCY; IDEAL.

Antonyms: actuality, fact, reality, substance.

* * * * * IDEAL.

Synonyms: archetype, model, pattern, prototype, standard.

idea, original, An _ideal_ is that which is conceived or taken as the highest type of excellence or ultimate object of attainment.

The _archetype_ is the primal form, actual or imaginary, according to which any existing thing is constructed; the _prototype_ has or has had actual existence; in the derived sense, as in metrology, a _prototype_ may not be the original form, but one having equal authority with that as a _standard_.

An _ideal_ may be primal, or may be slowly developed even from failures and by negations; an _ideal_ is meant to be perfect, not merely the thing that has been attained or is to be attained, but the best conceivable thing that could by possibility be attained.

The artist's _ideal_ is his own mental image, of which his finished work is but an imperfect expression.

The _original_ is the first specimen, good or bad; the _original_ of a master is superior to all copies.

The _standard_ may be below the _ideal_.

The _ideal_ is imaginary, and ordinarily unattainable; the _standard_ is concrete, and ordinarily attainable, being a measure to which all else of its kind must conform; as, the _standard_ of weights and measures, of corn, or of cotton.

The _idea_ of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in general; the _ideal_ of virtue is the mental concept or image of virtue in its highest conceivable perfection.

Compare EXAMPLE; IDEA.

Antonyms: accomplishment, action, doing, fact, practise, achievement, attainment, embodiment, incarnation, reality, act, development, execution, performance, realization.

* * * * * IDIOCY.

Synonyms: fatuity, foolishness, incapacity, stupidity.

folly, imbecility, senselessness, _Idiocy_ is a state of mental unsoundness amounting almost or quite to total absence of understanding.

_Imbecility_ is a condition of mental weakness, which may or may not be as complete as that of _idiocy_, but is at least such as to incapacitate for the serious duties of life.

_Incapacity_, or lack of legal qualification for certain acts, necessarily results from _imbecility_, but may also result from other causes, as from insanity or from age, sex, etc. ; as, the _incapacity_ of a minor to make a contract.

_Idiocy_ or _imbecility_ is weakness of mind, while insanity is disorder or abnormal action of mind.

_Folly_ and _foolishness_ denote a want of mental and often of moral balance.

_Fatuity_ is sometimes used as equivalent to _idiocy_, but more frequently signifies conceited and excessive _foolishness_ or _folly_.

_Stupidity_ is dulness and slowness of mental action which may range all the way from lack of normal readiness to absolute _imbecility_.

Compare INSANITY.

Antonyms: acuteness, brilliancy, common sense, sagacity, soundness, astuteness, capacity, intelligence, sense, wisdom.

* * * * * IDLE.

Synonyms: inactive, inert, slothful, trifling, unoccupied, indolent, lazy, sluggish, unemployed, vacant.

_Idle_ in all uses rests upon its root meaning, as derived from the Anglo-Saxon _idel_, which signifies vain, empty, useless.

_Idle_ thus denotes not primarily the absence of action, but vain action--the absence of useful, effective action; the _idle_ schoolboy may be very actively whittling his desk or tormenting his neighbors.

Doing nothing whatever is the secondary meaning of _idle_.

One may be temporarily _idle_ of necessity; if he is habitually _idle_, it is his own fault.

_Lazy_ signifies indisposed to exertion, averse to labor; idleness is in fact; laziness is in disposition or inclination.

A _lazy_ person may chance to be employed in useful work, but he acts without energy or impetus.

We speak figuratively of a _lazy_ stream.

The _inert_ person seems like dead matter (characterized by inertia), powerless to move;

the _sluggish_ moves heavily and toilsomely; the most active person may sometimes find the bodily or mental powers _sluggish_.

_Slothful_ belongs in the moral realm, denoting a self-indulgent aversion to exertion.

"The _slothful_ hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth," _Prov.

_ xxvi, 15. _Indolent_ is a milder term for the same quality; the _slothful_ man hates action; the _indolent_ man loves inaction.

Compare VAIN.

Antonyms: active, busy, diligent, employed, industrious, occupied, working.

* * * * * IGNORANT.

Synonyms: ill-informed, unenlightened, unlearned, untaught, illiterate, uninformed, unlettered, untutored.

uneducated, uninstructed, unskilled, _Ignorant_ signifies destitute of education or knowledge, or lacking knowledge or information; it is thus a relative term.

The most learned man is still _ignorant_ of many things; persons are spoken of as _ignorant_ who have not the knowledge that has become generally diffused in the world; the _ignorant_ savage may be well instructed in matters of the field and the chase, and is thus more properly _untutored_ than _ignorant_.

_Illiterate_ is without letters and the knowledge that comes through reading.

_Unlettered_ is similar in meaning to _illiterate_, but less absolute; the _unlettered_ man may have acquired the art of reading and writing and some elementary knowledge; the _uneducated_ man has never taken any systematic course of mental training.

_Ignorance_ is relative; _illiteracy_ is absolute; we have statistics of _illiteracy_;

no statistics of _ignorance_ are possible.

Antonyms: educated, learned, sage, skilled, trained, well-informed, wise.

instructed, * * * * * IMAGINATION.

Synonyms: fancy, fantasy, phantasy.

The old psychology treated of the _Reproductive Imagination_, which simply reproduces the images that the mind has in any way acquired, and the _Productive Imagination_ which modifies and combines mental images so as to produce what is virtually new.

To this _Reproductive Imagination_ President Noah Porter and others have given the name of _phantasy_ or _fantasy_ (many psychologists preferring the former spelling).

_Phantasy_ or _fantasy_, so understood, presents numerous and varied images, often combining them into new forms with exceeding vividness, yet without any true constructive power, but with the mind adrift, blindly and passively following the laws of association, and with reason and will in torpor; the mental images being perhaps as varied and as vivid, but also as purposeless and unsystematized as the visual images in a kaleidoscope; such _fantasy_ (often loosely called _imagination_) appears in dreaming, reverie, somnambulism, and intoxication.

_Fantasy_ in ordinary usage simply denotes capricious or erratic _fancy_, as appears in the adjective _fantastic_.

_Imagination_ and _fancy_ differ from _fantasy_ in bringing the images and their combinations under the control of the will; _imagination_ is the broader and higher term, including _fancy_; _imagination_ is the act or power of imaging or of reimaging objects of perception or thought, of combining the products of knowledge in modified, new, or ideal forms--the creative or constructive power of the mind; while _fancy_ is the act or power of forming pleasing, graceful, whimsical, or odd mental images, or of combining them with little regard to rational processes of construction;

_imagination_ in its lower form.

Both _fancy_ and _imagination_ recombine and modify mental images; either may work with the other's materials; _imagination_ may glorify the tiniest flower; _fancy_ may play around a mountain or a star; the one great distinction between them is that _fancy_ is superficial, while _imagination_ is deep, essential, spiritual.

Wordsworth, who was the first clearly to draw the distinction between the _fancy_ and the _imagination_, states it as follows: To aggregate and to associate, to evoke and to combine, belong as well to the _imagination_ as to the _fancy_; but either the materials evoked and combined are different; or they are brought together under a different law, and for a different purpose.

_Fancy_ does not require that the materials which she makes use of should be susceptible of changes in their constitution from her touch; and where they admit of modification, it is enough for her purpose if it be slight, limited, and evanescent.

Directly the reverse of these are the desires and demands of the _imagination_.

She recoils from everything but the plastic, the pliant, and the indefinite.

She leaves it to _fancy_ to describe Queen Mab as coming: 'In shape no bigger than an agate stone On the forefinger of an alderman.'

Having to speak of stature, she does not tell you that her gigantic angel was as tall as Pompey's Pillar; much less that he was twelve cubits or twelve hundred cubits high; or that his dimensions equalled those of Teneriffe or Atlas; because these, and if they were a million times as high, it would be the same, are bounded.

The expression is, 'His stature reached the sky!'

the illimitable firmament!

--When the _imagination_ frames a comparison, ...

a sense of the truth of the likeness from the moment that it is perceived grows--and continues to grow--upon the mind; the resemblance depending less upon outline of form and feature than upon expression and effect, less upon casual and outstanding than upon inherent and internal properties.

[B]

_Poetical Works, Pref.

to Ed.

of 1815_, p. 646, app.

[T.

& H.

'51. ] So far as actual images are concerned, both _fancy_ and _imagination_ are limited to the materials furnished by the external world; it is remarkable that among all the representations of gods or demigods, fiends and demons, griffins and chimæras, the human mind has never invented one organ or attribute that is not presented in human or animal life; the lion may have a human head and an eagle's wings and claws, but in the various features, individually, there is absolutely nothing new.

But _imagination_ can transcend the work of _fancy_, and compare an image drawn from the external world with some spiritual truth born in the mind itself, or infuse a series of images with such a spiritual truth, molding them as needed for its more vivid expression.

The _imagination_ modifies images, and gives unity to variety; it sees all things in one....

There is the epic _imagination_, the perfection of which is in Milton; and the dramatic, of which Shakspeare is the absolute master.

COLERIDGE _Table Talk_ June 23, '34. _Fancy_ keeps the material image prominent and clear, and works not only with it, but for it; _imagination_ always uses the material object as the minister of something greater than itself, and often almost loses the object in the spiritual idea with which she has associated it, and for which alone she values it.

_Fancy_ flits about the surface, and is airy and playful, sometimes petty and sometimes false; _imagination_ goes to the heart of things, and is deep, earnest, serious, and seeks always and everywhere for essential truth.

_Fancy_ sets off, variegates, and decorates; _imagination_ transforms and exalts.

_Fancy_ delights and entertains; _imagination_ moves and thrills.

_Imagination_ is not only poetic or literary, but scientific, philosophical, and practical.

By _imagination_ the architect sees the unity of a building not yet begun, and the inventor sees the unity and varied interactions of a machine never yet constructed, even a unity that no human eye ever can see, since when the machine is in actual motion, one part may hide the connecting parts, and yet all keep the unity of the inventor's thought.

By _imagination_ a Newton sweeps sun, planets, and stars into unity with the earth and the apple that is drawn irresistibly to its surface, and sees them all within the circle of one grand law.

Science, philosophy, and mechanical invention have little use for _fancy_, but the creative, penetrative power of _imagination_ is to them the breath of life, and the condition of all advance and success.

See also FANCY; IDEA.

[B] The whole discussion from which the quotation is taken is worthy of, and will well repay, careful study.

* * * * * IMMEDIATELY.

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