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The word cup is synonymous with the word hold (as in, "cupping a breast in one's hand"). Furthermore, the word hold is synonymous with the word imprison (as in, "the terrorist was being held at an undisclosed location"). But nobody would consider the words cup and imprison to be synonymous with each other.
Given two words x and y, if x and y are synonymous, then we shall write x ~ y. Given two words x and y, we shall define the gulf between x and y to be the length of the shortest chain of words < w1, w2, ., wn> for which
x |
~ |
w1 |
w1 |
~ |
w2 |
|
: |
|
wn-1 |
~ |
wn |
wn |
~ |
y |
For example, the gulf between cupand imprison is 1:
cup |
~ |
hold |
hold |
~ |
imprison |
In the case where x and y are synonymous, or are actually the same word, we shall say that the gulf between them is zero. If there is no finite chain of synonyms whatsoever connecting x to y, then we shall say that the gulf between x and y is infinite.
* * *
What is the gulf between love (the transitive verb) and hate (the transitive verb)? Based on Webster's New World Thesaurus (1974), we can state definitively that the gulf is no greater than six. For love is listed as a synonym for cherish (page 262), which is listed as a synonym for treasure (page 63), which is listed as a synonym for guard (page 461), which is listed as a synonym for tend (page 192), which is listed as a synonym for mind (page 448), which is listed as a synonym for dislike (page 278), which is listed as a synonym for hate (page 199). Succinctly,
love |
~ |
cherish |
cherish |
~ |
treasure |
treasure |
~ |
guard |
guard |
~ |
tend |
tend |
~ |
mind |
mind |
~ |
dislike |
dislike |
~ |
hate |
On page 1,118 of the Fourth Edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), the following appears as definition number six for the word mind (transitive verb):
6a. To care about; to be concerned about.
6b. To object to; dislike.
In grouping together these two senses, the lexicographers have located for us the exact site of the affinity between love and hate. It is here, precisely here, within the bipartite sixth definition of the word mind, where our language records the torture that is caring for someone.
* * *
If the gulf that separates love and hate can be bridged, then might any two words whatsoever be connected by a long enough chain of synonyms? Or are there concepts in our language so definitively different, so unblurrable at their edges, that their respective shades of meaning never overlap, even as their synonyms, and the synonyms of their synonyms, ripple outwards through the dictionary? If such an unbridgeable gulf were to exist, would we find only antonyms on opposite sides of it? Or would we discover a new kind of relationship between words, a relationship more profound than simple antonymy or synonymy, a relationship of total irrelevance? Given any dictionary and any thesaurus, there exists a third book, one that sets down, against each word, the strangers to it: its xenonyms.*
(* I cannot help but observe that Borges has produced this work.)
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