<Height, altitude>. "He was five feet, eleven inches in height." Can you substitute altitude? Is altitude used of persons? "At an altitude of eleven feet from the ground." Would height be more natural? Does altitude betoken great height? If so, does Hamlet speak jestingly when he greets the player, "Your ladyship is nearer heaven than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine?" What of the sentence: "The altitude of Galveston was not sufficient to protect it from the tidal wave"? Does the magnitude or importance of the object (Galveston) compensate for its lack of elevation and thus justify altitude? Could height be substituted? If so, would the words above sea-level have to follow it? Does this fact give you a further clue as to the distinction between the two words? You are comparing the elevation of two peaks, both plainly visible; you measure them merely by your eye. Do you say "This exceeds the other in height" or "This exceeds the other in altitude"? Suppose the peaks are so distant from each other that the two are not visible simultaneously, and suppose you are speaking from a knowledge of the scientific measurements. Do you say "This exceeds the other in height" or "This exceeds the other in altitude"?

<Talk, conversation>. Talk may be one-sided and empty. Conversation requires that at least two shall participate, and it is not spoken of as empty, though it may be trivial. "Our ____ was somewhat desultory." "Thought is less general than ____." "His ____ was so lively that I had no chance to interrupt" "That is meaningless ____."

<Homesickness, nostalgia>. All of us have heard physicians call commonplace ailments by extraordinary names. When homesickness reaches the stage where a physician is or might be called in, it becomes nostalgia. The latter term suggests morbid or chronic suffering. A healthy boy away from home for the first time is homesick. An exile who has wasted himself with pining for his native land is nostalgic. "His ____ was more than ____; it had so preyed upon his thoughts that it had grown into ____."

Rise, ascend. Rise is the more general term, but it expresses less than ascend in degree or stateliness. "He had foretold to them that he would ____ into heaven." "Do not ____ from your seat." "The diver slowly ____ to the surface." "The travelers ____ the mountain."

<Sell, vend>. Sell is the more dignified word socially, but may express greater moral degradation. Vend is used of the petty (as that which can be carried about in a wagon), and may suggest the pettily dishonest. "That man would ____ his country." "We shall ____ a million dollars' worth of goods." "The hucksters ____ their wares."

<LIST H>

Study the discriminations between the members of the following pairs. Determine whether the words are correctly used in the illustrative sentences. (Some are; some are not.)

<Friendly, amicable>. Friendly denotes goodwill positive in quality though perhaps limited in degree; we may be friendly to friends, enemies, or strangers. Amicable is negative, denoting absence of open discord: it is used of those persons between whom some connection already exists. "The newcomer has an amicable manner." "Both sides were cautious, but at last they reached a friendly settlement." "I have only amicable feelings for an enemy who is thus merciful." "The two met, if not in a friendly, at least in an amicable way."

<Willing, voluntary>. Both words imply an act of the will; but willing adds positive good-nature, desire, or enthusiasm, whereas voluntary conveys little or nothing of the emotional attitude. Voluntary is often thought of in contrast with mechanical. "They made willing submission." "They rendered whole-hearted and voluntary service." "Though torn by desire to return to his mother, he willingly continued his journey away from her." "The sneeze was unwilling."

<Greedy, voracious.> Greedy denotes excessiveness (usually habitual) of appetite or, in its figurative uses, of desire; it nearly always carries the idea of selfishness. Voracious denotes intense hunger or the hasty and prolonged consumption of great quantities of food; it may indicate, not habitual selfishness, but the stress of circumstances. "Nobody else I know is so greedy as he." "The young poet was voracious of praise." "Trench, though a capital fellow, was so hungry that he ate voraciously."