A Dictionary of Cont..

illegal 232
In contemporary American usage ill and sick
both mean unwell, in poor health. 111 is the
more formal word and because of its formality
is likely to suggest a more serious indisposition,
but this is not absolute. Sick in English usage
has come to mean nauseated, almost to the
point of being an indecent word. An American
who announced that he thought he was going
to be sick might elicit some sympathy from the
assembled company. An Englishman would be
more likely to arouse consternation. Here, as
with many words, the American usage is the
older one, once employed in England but now
replaced by the newer or more specialized
meaning. When the physician in Macbeth tells
Macbeth that Lady Macbeth is not so sick as
she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, the
modern English meaning would be ludicrous.
Peter’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever. Ruth,
in tears amid the alien corn, was sick for home.
And so on. Nausea is recognized in America as
a form of sickness, especially in such phrases as
a sick headache, sea-sickness, and sick at his
stomach. (The form sick to is sometimes heard,
but sick at is preferred.)
illegal; illegitimate; illicit; unlawful. All of these
words mean contrary to law, but each has
acquired special meanings. Zllegal is the most
sharply restricted of the four, meaning only
forbidden by law, contrary to statute (Zt is
illegal in some states to go fishing on Sunday).
The earliest meaning of illegitimate was “not
born in wedlock” (Many of Elizabeth’s subjects
regarded her as an illegitimate child and hence
not lawfully their queen) and from this it has
developed the associated meaning of spurious.
It can mean illegal and there is an increasing
tendency to so use it. Illicit expresses more
opprobrium than the other words. An illicit love
affair is not only an illegal love affair but one
of which the speaker or writer disapproves. It
is shameful, furtive, dishonest. Unlawful can
mean contrary to moral standards as well as
contrary to law. It is now slightly archaic, its
meaning of contrary to law being largely
replaced by illegal and its meaning of contrary
to moral standards being largely replaced by
illicit. Unlawful issue or unlawful love would
sound a little strange today. This very fact, however,
gives the word certain shades of meaning
that are desirable in special contexts. Its overuse
by the rhetoricians and moralists of previous
generations has given it, for example, a
slight flavor of humor in some contexts (FVYP
mair or horrible and awfu’/ Which even to
name wad be unlawfu’). In others it has an
added touch of dignity (These unlawful aspirations
must be repressed).
illegible; unreadable. That which is illegible is
hard or impossible to read or decipher. It is
used particularly of handwriting. That which is
unreadable may be so because it is illegible,
but more often the word means that it is unsuitable
for reading, too dull, awkward, tedious
or offensive (The manuscript was almost illegible
and when finally deciphered was unreadable).
ill-gotten gains. As a term for wealth acquired by
evil means, ill-gotten gains is a clich6.
illicit. See illegal; elicit.
illiterate; ignorant. Illiterate is not so general a
term as ignorant. In its strict sense it means
unable to read (He was illiterate until he was
twelve), but it has come to mean unable to read
or write, and, more loosely still, lacking education
and even showing a lack of culture (He
loved to be bitter at/ A lady illiterate. Many
sensational comic books are written with a vast
audience of illiterates in mind). Ignorant means
destitute of knowledge, unlearned. It may
describe a general condition (He’s just an ignorant
lout, what do you expect?) or refer to
a lack of knowledge in regard to some particular
subject or fact (I am ignorant of the
cause of their quarrel). An illiterate person is
ignorant, strictly speaking, only in this last sense
of lacking knowledge of a particular subjectreading.
But in contemporary United States,
where free public education is not only available
but compulsory, one who is truly illiterate
is probably mentally deficient and grossly ignorant
and the chances are that illiterate will
come more and more to mean ignorant and
stupid. It is already being used a great deal to
designate one who doesn’t know the very basis
-the ABC’s, as it were-of some specialized
field (He was psychiatrically illiterate. Many
of the tycoons are economic illiterates.)
illness. See sickuess.
illume; illuminate; illumine. All three of these
words mean to light up, to throw light upon,
either literally or figuratively, in the sense of
explaining an idea to make it clearer. Zllume
is a poetic archaism (A second sun array’d in
flame,/ To burn, to kindle, to illume) and
should be avoided unless the user is a poet
nearing his two hundredth birthday. Zllumine
is alsd strictly for the poets; it went out of
fashion with Tennvson (The lone-illumined
cities). Illuminate, - then,‘ remains- the only
generally acceptable form.
illusion; illusive; illusory. See allusion.
illustration. See case and example.
imaginary; imaginative. That is imaginary which
is not real but exists only in the imagination or
fancy (He had suffered all his life from imaginary
ailments). That is imaginative which is
characterized by or bears evidence of imagination
(“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is a
highly imaginative poem). An imaginative man
would be one who imagines much, a man rich
in fancy. An imaginary man would be a nonexistent
being conceived of in someone’s imagination.
imagination. See fancy.
imagination run riot. See riot.
imagine. This word may be followed by a clause,
as in Z imagine they have finished, or by the -ing
form of a verb, as in imagine finishing so soon.
It may also be followed by an infinitive, as in
I imagine them to have finished, but the clause
construction is generally preferred.
imagine; suppose. Although the primary meaning
of suppose is to assume that something is true