Defining the Essence of Things
Definition ‘must be universal, proper, and peculiar to the thing defined’
Excerpted from A Whirld of Words: A Reader's Commonplace Dictionary. Find the LINK to the Introduction and WORKS CITED below.
define
we define only out of despair
(Cioran 1998) p. 48
definiendum
the word being defined
(Stamper 2017) p. 114
defining
as it turns out, there are several kinds of defining in the world, but the two big ones that lexicographers must wrestle with are real defining and lexical defining. Real defining is the stuff of philosophy and theology: it is the attempt to describe the essential nature of something. Real defining answers questions like 'What is truth?' 'What is love?' You stare into the middle distance and palm books of wisdom and decide whether love is an action, a feeling, a myth. Lexicographers don't do real defining. In fact, the hallmark of bad lexicography is the attempt to do real defining. Lexicographers only get to do lexical defining, which is the attempt to describe how a word is used and what it is used to mean in a particular setting. Lexical definitions come in a handful of philosophical-sounding flavors – ostensive, synonymous, analytical, truncated, periphrastic. Ostensive defining: it's the act of physically showing a person what the word means; synonymous defining: simply definitions that list other better-known synonyms of a word. Analytical definitions are the most common ones you'll find in dictionaries, the ones that read like they were written by a team of neurodiverse robots
(Stamper 2017) p. 94, 95, 112-114
definition
a phrase signifying a thing's essence
(Aristotle 1990) p. 144
the nature expressed by the name
Aristotle, Metaphysics, IV, 7 (1012a23)
(Aquinas 1990a) p. 68
the definition makes known the quiddity and essence of a thing
Aristotle, Metaphysics (Aquinas 1990b) p. 402
a definition should be 'reciprocal with the thing defined' (Isaac Watts), it must be universal, proper and peculiar to the thing defined, clear and plain and short
(Hitchings 2005) p. 88
I think it is agreed, that a definition is nothing else but the showing of the meaning of one word by several other not synonymous terms. Definition being nothing but making another understand by words what idea the term defined stands for, a definition is best made by enumerating those simple ideas that are combined in the signification of the term defined
(Locke 1990) p. 256, 260
sometimes things may be made darker by definition
Samuel Johnson (Boswell 1952) p. 776
the representation, upon primary grounds, of the complete conception of a thing within its own limits
(Kant 1990) p. 215
when Plato says the passions and natural desires are the wings of the soul he expresses himself in a very instructive way: such comparisons illuminate the subject and are as it were the translation of difficult concepts into a language familiar to everyone – true definitions
(Lichtenberg 2000) p. 11
here, then, are three sources of vague and incorrect definitions: indistinctness of the object, imperfection of the organ of conception, inadequateness of the vehicle of ideas. Any one of these must produce a certain degree of obscurity
Federalist, No. 37 (Hamilton et al. 2000) p. 227
nothing is definable unless it has no history
Nietzsche (Hayman 1980) p. 1
we conceive by means of definition or description
(Newman 1960) p. 77
deletion
(Chesterton 1953) p. 145
to define is to exclude and deny
(Ortega y Gasset 1961) p. 99
the lie of the abstract mind
(Cioran 1998) p. 18
the traditional rules of lexical definition, based on Aristotle's analysis, demand that the word defined (called in Latin the definiendum) be identified by genus and differentia. That is, the word must first be defined according to the class of things to which it belongs, and then distinguished from all other things within that class
(Landau 1984) p. 120
the art of definition is the art of balance, of abbreviating without impoverishing. The words it is hardest to define are common. Verbs are especially difficult. They behave unpredictably
(Hitchings 2005) p. 86, 92
a definition is made up mostly of differentiae – the descriptive words that differentiate each member of a category. Lexicographers tend to fall into one of two categories when it comes to writing definitions: lumpers and splitters. Lumpers are definers who tend to write broad definitions that can cover several more minor variations on that meaning; splitters are people who tend to write discrete definitions for each of those minor variations. There is only so much you can do in capturing meaning in a definition
(Stamper 2017) p. 115, 119, 124
'in an odd way,' Steve Perrault says, 'I tend to feel that the definition is an imperfect thing any way you look at it. A definition is an attempt to explain a word's meaning using these certain conventions, and you have to distinguish between the definition of a word and the meaning of a word. The meaning is something that resides in the word, and the definition is a description of that. But a definition is an artificial thing'
(Stamper 2017) p. 124
definition is a pallid distillation of meaning
[JS]
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LINK to the Introduction to A Whirld of Words: A Reader's Commonplace Dictionary.
WORKS CITED
Aquinas, Thomas (1990a), Summa Theologica Vol. I (Great Books of the Western World, 17; Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica) xvi, 826.
--- (1990b), Summa Theologica Vol. II (Great Books of the Western World, 18; Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica) xiv, 1085.
Aristotle (1990), Prior Analytics; Posterior Analytics; Topics; Sophistical Refutations; Heavens; Metaphysics; Soul; Memory Vol. I (Great Books of the Western World, 7: Encyclopaedia Britannica) viii, 726.
Boswell, James (1952), The Life of Samuel Johnson (New York: Modern Library) xv, 1 , 559.
Chesterton, G. K. (1953), A Handful of Authors: Essays on Books and Writers (New York: Sheed and Ward) vii, [1], 214, [2].
Cioran, E. M. (1998), A Short History of Decay (New York: Arcade) 181.
Hamilton, Alexander, Jay, John, and Madison, James (2000), The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States (New York: Modern Library) lviii, 618.
Hayman, Ronald (1980), Nietzsche: A Critical Life (New York: Oxford University Press) xxiii, 424, 4 l. of pl.
Hitchings, Henry (2005), Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr. Johnson's Dictionary (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux) viii, 292.
Kant, Immanuel (1990), Critique of Pure Reason; Metaphysic of Morals; Critique of Practical Reason; Metaphysical Elements of Ethics (Great Books of the Western World, 39; Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica) xii, 613.
Landau, Sidney I. (1984), Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography (New York: Scribner) xiii, 370.
Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph (2000), The Waste Books, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: New York Review Books) xxv, 235.
Locke, John (1990), A Letter Concerning Toleration; Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay; And Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Great Books of the Western World, 33; New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica) x, 1-395.
Newman, John Henry (1960), An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (Garden City, NY: Doubleday) 434.
Ortega y Gasset, José (1961), The Modern Theme (New York: Harper) 152.
Stamper, Kory (2017), Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries (New York: Pantheon Books) xiv, 299.