A. D. SHEFFIELD, 1938

3. Core-sense and synonym cluster

Words can be displayed together as a synonym cluster to be chosen from when they share a basic meaning such that each synonym can be felt as offering this "core-sense" expressively enriched by further distinctions of sense, feeling, or tone. Thus the words clothing, garments, garb, habiliments, vestments, apparel, attire, togs, etc. have in common the core-sense "covering of fabric for the body", which makes them a set of variations on one theme. Clothing, perhaps, means just this core-sense and nothing more; but garb adds the "by-sense" of "special style distinctive of social or occupational class" (as the garb of a monk) ; vestments are liturgical, worn by those officiating in a church service; attire suggests that that one is being impressed by elegance; apparel and togs offer contrasts of "tone."

In seeking the best word one naturally starts with some word that comes to mind but is not felt as satisfying. One turns to that word in its alphabetical place as a title-word in this book, expecting to find either the synonym list with the right or a cross-reference to that list under another title-word. One needs, in this process, a recognition of the right core-sense,  since the title-word will very commonly have two or more historic meanings, each of which links the word with a different synonym-cluster around a distinct core-sense. Thus if one thinks of abandoned when groping toward profligate, one should recognize the core-sense, " given over to depraved conduct", that will guide one to the second list under abandoned, where the first list gives synonyms for its earlier meaning: "given up, forsaken."

With the recognized core-sense and the right list before one, a judgment as to the best word is quickened and made precise if one has formed a habit of noting the presumable kinds  of "by-sense" which given core-senses invite. For example, when one has found the synonym list irritable, irascible, testy, choleric, ireful, waspish, and so on, with the core-sense, "temperamentally disposed to displays of anger", one is helped toward the best choice by a little prevision of the variations to be expected. Displays of an emotion may be violent or weak, settled or transient, and their occasions may be serious or petty. These "categories" for the by-senses suggest comparisons by which one quickly sees, for example, that irascible means something less serious than ireful, more "flash-in-the-pan" than choleric, and more violent than snappish.