This one's got me stumped. Mrs. Byrne lists the following:

thetical adj. -- arbitrary; prescribed; laid down; positive.

Now there's a world of contradictions in those definitions.

But then throw antithetical into the mass, and what you could end up with would be:

anti-arbitrary (prescribed); anti-prescribed (arbitrary); up-in-the-air; and negative or doubtful...

So it would follow that thetical and antithetical could mean, to the arbitrary reader, anything that you want them to mean. Context is all?

I'm hoping tsuwm will clarify this whole thetical mess.

Best regards,
BeWildered

bewildebeest,

step 1: thetical - Of the nature of or involving direct or positive statement; laid down or stated positively or absolutely; positive; dogmatic; arbitrary.
1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 66 This Law+was merely Thetical or Positive, not Indispensable and Natural. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. Pref. 2. 1718 J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. Pref. (1730) 4 The Thetical Way+must not appear imperfect to them. 1873 W. Humphrey Div. Teacher p. iii, A thetical exposition of the Catholic doctrine. a thesis lays out something of this nature.

step 2: an antithesis is simply a proposal opposed to a thesis; so, antithetical is characterised by direct opposition.

step 3: arbitrary and dogmatic are sometimes thought to be pejorative in nature, but are not, perforce, negative.
arbitrary - 2. Law. Relating to, or dependent on, the discretion of an arbiter, arbitrator, or other legally-recognized authority; discretionary, not fixed.
dogmatic - 3. Proceeding upon a priori principles accepted as true, instead of being founded upon experience or induction

Thanks, tsuwm. I think I'm closer to understanding this. Thetical applies to judgments generally. A thetical judgment would be clearly defined. But that which is antithetical would be in contradiction to the thetical judgment. Am I a gnu woman in understanding or still on the Serengeti?

Best regards,
WildWorld

Am I a gnu woman or still on the Serengeti?
Careful, Dub-Dub; there are hippopotami lurking nearby!

Keivabeest,

...and we have been so good for weeks now avoiding the Serengeti, haven't we? The thetical judgment of the poohbahs was to restrain all future references to that great gray porker, and I think our restraint has been commendable.

But it was tsuwm, not I, who stuck his foot first here on the Serengeti...and, tempted though I was, the gnu was the only beest I referenced.

Beest regards (a single blade of grass hanging from my fipple),
WildeWorld

As a quintessentiol quibbler, I don't remember any of the TV shows about the Serengeti showing any rivers, or "horses of the river". Just big puddles that did not last through dry season.

wwh, I Googled "Serengeti Plain"+hippopotamus (without the + sign) and found the description below of the fauna in the Serengeti National Park. Hippos are there along with wildebeest--don't see tsuwm's bewildebeest listed there, but what the hey?

"FAUNA The park is best known for the now unrivalled herd sizes of 'plains game', which migrate between seasonal water supplies and grasslands. These include wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus (LR), zebra Equus burchelli, Thomson's gazelle Gazella thomsoni (LR), numerous prides of lion Panthera leo (VU) numbering up to 3,000 individuals (Packer, 1996), and spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta (LR). In May and June many game animals take part in a mass migration away from the central plains into the western corridor. The annual wildebeest migration is described in SRCS (1992) and Murray (1992). In the 1950s the wildebeest population is thought to have numbered 190,000, subsequently increasing to an estimated 1.69 million in 1989 (SRCS, 1992), and 1.27 million in 1991 (TWCM, 1992). Other characteristic mammals are leopard Panthera pardus, cheetah Acinonyx jubatus (VU), elephant Loxodonta africana (EN) estimated to number 1,357 in 1994 (Said et al., 1995), black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis (CR), hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis (LR), buffalo Syncerus caffer (LR), topi Damaliscus lunatus (LR), waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus (LR), eland Taurotragus oryx, sitatunga Tragelaphus spekei (LR), bushbuck T. scriptus, oryx Oryx gazella (LR), reedbuck Redunca redunca (LR), mountain reedbuck R. fulvorufula (LR), numerous species of rodents and bats, golden jackal Canis aureus, side striped jackal C. adustus, Grant's gazelle Gazella granti (LR), seven species of mongoose, two species of otter, warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus, and seven species of primate. Smaller predators include bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis and ratel Mellivora capensis. The last packs of wild dog Lycaon pictus (EN) disappeared from the park in 1991. A rabies epidemic killed three of the packs, but there is no clear consensus on the full cause of the disappearance (Morell, 1995; Dye, 1996; East and Hofer, 1996)."

http://www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/wh/serenget.html

Best regards,
WildeWord

Howye

Ted here. I'm only new here as ye may know cos I intraduced meself a while back. And a very warm response I got indeed.
Except fer one thing - who is this Mrs Byrne person and why haven't we being intraduced? Is any of ye on first name terms with her and if so how do ya get ta such a privilaged position? I think that might be where I belong.

Thanks fer yer help - I know as much as ye do now. (I'll write that now cos it'll save me the trouble of writen another post) (Ah sure, happy Christmas and Easter ta ye all while I'm at it)

Dear GT: tsuwm introduced us to Mrs. Byrne's book, which is now out of print, and reprint apparently delayed by her having a row with her editor. She was daughter of famous violinist Jasha Heifetz, and I think her maiden name may be on reprint when it finally appears. You can find information about it in Amazon's site.Here is a URL about it:
http://textstore.co.il/mrsbyrne/About_Mrs__Byrne/about_mrs__byrne.html

as I've mentioned before, the reprint (paperback) is listed as available at ******.com -- I have to think that the information given at the "about mrs. byrne" link is out of date.

The Word Lover's Dictionary : Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, by Josefa Heifetz
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.

as I've mentioned before, the reprint (paperback) is listed as available at ******.com -- I have to think that the information given at the "about mrs. byrne" link is out of date.

The Word Lover's Dictionary : Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, by Josefa Heifetz
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours.

p.s. - I checked out the sample pages given online; it's exactly the same material.