Examples of Narrowly Circular Definitions
The 2007 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a "hill" and a "mountain" this way:
- Hill - "1: a usually rounded natural elevation of land lower than a mountain"
- Mountain - "1a: a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill"
Merriam-Webster's online dictionary provides another example of a circular definition with the words "condescending" and "patronizing:"
- Main Entry: condescending
- Function: adjective
- 1 : showing or characterized by condescension : patronizing
This definition alone is close to suffering from circular definition, but following the definition train:
- Main Entry: condescension
- Function: noun
- 1 : voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in relations with an inferior
- 2 : patronizing attitude or behavior
Looking up the word "patronizing" then gives us:
- Main Entry: patronize
- Function: transitive verb
- 1 : to act as patron of : provide aid or support for
- 2 : to adopt an air of condescension toward : treat haughtily or coolly
In short: the two words define each other.
Read more about this topic: Circular Definition
Famous quotes containing the words examples of, examples, narrowly, circular and/or definitions:
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“The poet is a man who lives at last by watching his moods. An old poet comes at last to watch his moods as narrowly as a cat does a mouse.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.... I found that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What I do not like about our definitions of genius is that there is in them nothing of the day of judgment, nothing of resounding through eternity and nothing of the footsteps of the Almighty.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)