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.) 1 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) 2 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. 3
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