A Dictionary of Cont..

evolution, or complete or marked change (He
introduced revolutionary techniques irr the
teaching of languages). It also means subversive
to established procedure or principles
(Dostoevsky was arrested on charges of having
plotted revolutionary activity) and has the still
further meaning, not often used in common
speech or writing, of revolving (His eyes
glittered as they followed the revolutionary
course of the roulette wheel).
Though revolutionary may be used in
America as a noun to describe one who advocates
or takes part in a revolution, the more
common term is revolutionist. This term is
almost always reserved, however, for those
engaged in or advocating political revolutions
in other countries (The Mexican revolutifonists
were soon brought under control by the government
forces). Those who advocate any such
changes in America are most commonly
referred to now as subversives, for any word
deriving from the word revolution sugge:sts to
Americans the American Revolutionary War
and hence creates considerable moral confusion.
See also radical.
rhetoric in the United States still means primarily
the art or science of the specially literary uses
of language, in prose or verse, or the art of
prose as opposed to verse. In England it is a
disparaging term (Rhetoric is the harlot of the
arts--Stanley Baldwin) meaning the ux of
exaggeration or display, in an unfavorable
sense. This meaning is known and employed in
America, but it is a secondary meaning.
rhinoceros. The plural is rhinoceroses or rhinoceros
or rhinocerotes, but not rhinoceri.
rhyme and rime may both be used as noum and
verbs to describe agreement in terminal sounds
of lines or verse, or of words. Of the two, rime
is the older, but since the seventeenth century
rhyme has been more common. Rime, however,
has never dropped out of use (Coleridge, The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner) and recently it
has been used in the title of an important discussion
of modem prosody (Karl Shapiro, An
Essay on Rime).
rhyme; rhythm. Rhythm is a pattern of recurrence.
Rhyme is often an element in the rh,ythm
of English poetry, but there can be rh,ythm
without rhyme and there is often rhyme with
imperfect or no perceptible rhythm.
Rhyme means agreement in the terminal
sounds of lines in verse, or of words (In the
heroic couplet the rhymes are paired: “The
hungry judges soon the sentence sign,/ And
wretches hung that jurymen may dine”). It may
also mean verse or poetry having such correspondence
in the terminal sounds of the lines
(Sometimes he expressed his thoughts in prose,
at other times in rhyme) or a poem or a piece
of verse having such correspondence I( The
children were very fond of one particular
nursery rhyme).
Rhythm is a much broader term. It may be
used of more types of literature and may be
425 riches
applied to forms of art other than verse. Basically
it means movement or procedure with
uniform recurrence of a beat, accent, or the
like (In the human body there is rhythm in
breathing, in the pulse, and in other subtler
vital processes). It can describe any measured
movement, as in dancing (A highly developed
sense of rhythm is essential to a tennis player).
In music, rhythm means the pattern of regular
or irregular pulses caused by the occurrence of
strong and weak melodic and harmonic beats
(It was written in an ordinary 4/4 rhythm). In
prosody, rhythm means metrical or rhythmical
form, meter (The basic rhythm in English
poetry is iambic; that is, an unstressed syllable
is followed by a stressed syllable). In art.
rhithm means- a proper relation aid interde:
pendence of parts with reference to one another
and to an artistic whole (The paintings of Piero
della Francesca have rhythm, while the imita-
tive work of Kenyon Cox does not).
rich; wealthy; opulent; affluent. All of these
words indicate abundance in possessions. Rich
is the general word, a word having many senses
in addition to the primary one (as a rich tone
or a rich color or a rich dessert). Often rich
carries the implication of newly acquired possession
(Texas is not as full of rich oil men as the
newsmagazines and television jokes assume).
Wealthy suggests permanence, stability, and
appropriate surroundings (The DuPonts are u
powerful and wealthy family). Both rich and
wealthy may apply to a person, a family, a
society, or a nation. Opulent and afluent are
largely applicable to persons. Opulent suggests
display of luxuriousness, outward signs of being
rich (Gatsby was opulent in his lavish villa, his
yellow car, his pink suits). Afluent, now slightly
archaic, connotes a handsome income and a
free expenditure of resources.
rich as Croesos, as. Croesus, king of Lydia (560
-c.540 B.C.), was famed among the Greeks
for almost incredible wealth. His name became
a proverb for riches, but few who use the
hackneyed simile have now any knowledge of
him.
rich beyond the dreams of avarice. When Dr.
Johnson, bustling about in his capacity as an
executor at the sale of Thrale’s brewery in
1781, said We are not here to sell a parcel of
boilers and vats, but the potenGaliry of growing
rich beyond the dreams of avarice, he was quoting
from The Gamester, a tragedy by Edward
Moore ( 1753 j. Moore’s uhrase was imaginative
. I
and Johnson’s use of it ielicitous. But icis now
exhausted by repetition and those who use it
show neither imagination nor felicity.
Richard Roe. See John Doe.
riches was originally a singular word ending in
an s sound, similar to finesse, and meant
wealth. It is now treated as a plural, as in your
riches are corrupted and your garments are
moth-eaten, but there is no singular form a rich
and
_.
the plural form cannot be used with a word
implying number.