SYNONYMS
Find all the synonyms for ‘poor’ in the following passage:
I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was
needy.Then they told me it was self-defeating to think of myself as needy. I
was deprived. (Oh, not deprived but rather underprivileged.) Then they told
me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. I still don’t have
a dime. But I have a great vocabulary.
Jules Feiffer
ANSWER:
Poor, needy, deprived, underprivileged, disadvantaged.
Jules Ralph Feiffer (b. January 26, 1929) is an American cartoonist, most notable for his long-run comic strip titled
Feiffer. He has created more than 35 books, plays and screenplays. In 1986, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his editorial
cartooning in The Village Voice
N.B.
cartoonist < cartoon, “vignetta”, “fumetto”
animated cartoon > “cartoni animati”
FALSE FRIENDS:
Engl. CARTOON
It. CARTONE
Engl. CARTON It. CARTONE
It. CARTONE
Engl CARDBOARD
A DEFINITION OF SYNONYMS:
A synonym is a word that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another word in the
same language: big/large, strong/heavy, small/little are synonyms.
There are always differences in meaning or in usage between synonyms. E.g.:
Heavy/Strong: we say a strong wind, not a heavy wind, but heavy rain, not strong rain.
This is a difference in usage (collocation).
Small/Little: small refers to size and is the usual opposite of 'big' or 'large:'
Could I have a hamburger and a small Coke please?
Our house is quite small.
Little too may refer to size, but it also expresses the speaker's feelings. It can suggest that the
speaker likes or dislikes something.
They live in a beautiful little village.
Rats are horrible little animals.
These are differences in meaning. (Semantic difference.)
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A DICTIONARY OF SYNONYMS IN BOOK FORM
Use this entry from Aldo Gabrielli’s Dizionario dei sinonimi e dei contrari to find a translation of
the synonyms in the passage by Feiffer.
Your findings:
poor:
needy:
deprived:
underprivileged:
disadvantaged:
________________
________________
________________
________________
________________
povero
bisognoso, indigente
deprivato ? (not in Gabrielli)
diseredato ?
svantaggiato ? (not in Gabrielli)
N.B.:
Synonym: the opposite is antonym / ˈæntənɪm / .
Cfr. Gabrielli’s title: Dizionario dei sinonimi e dei contrari.
A way to find equivalents: comparing definitions:
DEPRIVED: without enough food, education, and all the things that are necessary for people to live
a happy and comfortable life. (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
DEPRIVATO: escluso dal godimento di beni di realtà sociali e culturali di più alto livello
(Zingarelli)
UNDERPRIVILEGED: having less money and fewer opportunities than most people in society;
disadvantaged. (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
DISEREDATO: privo di beni e impossibilitato a usufruire di quei diritti che dovrebbero essere
comuni a tutti (De Mauro, GraDIt)
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A dictionary of synonyms is often called a
THESAURUS /θɪˈsɔːrəs/.
A famous thesaurus in eEnglish is the Roget’s Thesaurus /ʹrouʒeiz θɪˈsɔːrəs/ ( also infml Roget ), a
popular reference book , originally written by Peter Mark Roget ( 1779–1869 ) and first published
in 1852 . Roget was a scientist and inventor who started work on the thesaurus when he retired as
Secretary of the Royal Society in 1848 . It contains English words or phrases arranged together in
groups according to their meaning, and is still used today by people looking for the most
appropriate word or phrase to use in a piece of writing. New editions of Roget are published
regularly.
(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 8th edition)
AN ON-LINE DICTIONARY OF SYNONYMS
Look at this list of synonyms for POOR from an on-line dictionary of synonyms
(http://dico.isc.cnrs.fr/dico/en/search). Do you have all the synonyms of “poor” that you found in
the passage by Feiffer?
ailing
arid
bad
badly
badly-off
bankrupt
bare
barren
base
beggarly
below par
broke
cheap
deficient
deprived
destitute
distressed
exiguous
faulty
flimsy
fruitless
hapless
hard up
hardscrabble
humble
impecunious
impoverished
inadequate
indigent
inferior
infertile
insubstantial
insufficient
lacking
lame
lousily
lousy
low
low-grade
lowly
luckless
meager
meagre
mean
mediocre
menial
miserable
misfortunate
needy
paltry
pathetic
penniless
penurious
piteous
pitiable
pitiful
poorly
povertystricken
rotten
rottenly
scanty
second-rate
shabby
shoddy
short
sick
sickly
slender
slim
sparse
star-crossed
sterile
substandard
underprivileged
unfortunate
unlucky
unproductive
weak
worthless
wretched
(80 synonyms)
ANSWER: ‘disadvantaged’ is missing.
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