Many years ago I saw the late Tony Randall on the Tonight Show. Johnny Carson asked Randall if he hated something, and he replied that he didn't hate it, he detested it. Asked what the difference was he said "One hates that which is evil; one detests that which is annoying; you despise that which is beneath you, and loathe that which is disgusting."

What do you think? What about other sets of near-synonyms, like infer, assume, deduce and surmise? The first three have distinct meanings in logic, but are they the same in common speech?

Not to me. To Joe Average they might be the same, but we've a self-selected group here who will all likely see the differences.

I'm reminded of a comment made by a classmate waaaay back in high school: "There are three kinds of reasoning: inductive, deductive, and seductive." I think she may have been onto something!

I see these words as a hierarchy.

The way I say "Hate" is a lot weaker than my parents. "I hate Diet Coke", etc.

"Despise" and "Detest" are the next in line. "I despise you" is fairly strong.

"Loath" is the worst, and it is something that I would rarely say.

Reading that loath is used with things that disgust you, it makes complete sense, because when you say loath, it makes you feel like you are disgusted.

What about "abhor". Abhor seems to be as strong as loath. Of course, the only kind of sentence I would ever use abhor is in would be "Like Nature, I abhor the sound of vacuums".

How would you distinguish conjecture, surmise and speculate?

I'm probably alone on this, but I think a great deal of what a word means (in the minutia sort of way being discussed here) comes from its context, its usage, and the utter's intension. Oh, well.

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I'm probably alone on this, but I think a great deal of what a word means (in the minutia sort of way being discussed here) comes from its context, its usage, and the utter's intension.

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I agree. What I was discussing was the general context and tone with which the words are said.

As for conjecture, speculate, and surmise...

They all have same general meaning, which is guess, however, conjecture appears to be more educated of a guess than speculate. Surmise seems to be the most logical of the 3.

I'm with jheem here (naturally). I'm pretty sure you can't take a word in isolation and say what its meaning is, in a precise enough way to distinguish near-synonyms. You need to look at examples in context and see how you'd use them.

For one thing, you'll usually find grammatical differences:

I hate to do it.
* I detest to do it.
* I loathe to do it.

Then when you have got grammatical parallels you can often find differences other than meaning:

I hate doing it.
I detest doing it.
I loathe doing it.

Now I'd say "I detest doing it" implies I very rarely do it, and would go out of my way to avoid it. The other two are much more comfortable with the implication that I do it all the time.

I'm with jheem here (naturally).
Now, why is that?

To me (and I haven't looked them up for this because that wouldn't be fair really), "surmise" means to make a conclusion based on facts, whereas "conjecture" is making your own educated conclusions. "Speculate" means to look toward the future and make some educated conclusions.

As far as "hate," "loathe," "abhor," and "detest," I agree with Seanahan's hierarchy. However, I think it also has something to do with how often you hear the words. One hears "hate" all day long, so it just doesn't conjure up that intense of an emotion.

However, when all is said and done, I agree with jheem and aput about looking at the context. After all, if I agree with them, I can hardly go wrong, right?

My father(phD in English) always used to respond to "I hate spinach" with something along the lines of "Hate is too strong a word to use for spinach". I eat spinach now, so I couldn't have disliked it too much. However, to my father, hate is a much stronger word than it is too me.

I'd imagine the reason is that despise, detest, and loath are used rarely, and even if you combine all the occurences of these words it wouldn't be close to the occurences of hate. As such, hate gains an everyday meaning, a word we use all the time to describe things we dislike, and when we are really mad, we use a less common word to emphasize this.

My father(phD in English) always used to respond to "I hate spinach" with something along the lines of "Hate is too strong a word to use for spinach". I eat spinach now, so I couldn't have disliked it too much. However, to my father, hate is a much stronger word than it is too me.

Yes, I agree, Sean, that hate is not as strong a word for me anymore either...mainly because I say it so much. "I just hate this weather." Or, "I just hate that double dactyl."

BTW, how about inviting your English professor dad to this forum?

He doesn't really do the internet thing. Also, he is so busy that he barely has time to read anymore! I know, amazing. He has told stories about college where he read a book a day.

"Detest," "loathe'" and all the rest are perfectly usable words whose only fault is that they aren't used and that, it's obvious to see, is not the fault of the words themselves.

"Hate" has become less hateful over time through overuse, one of many words suffering this fate. It all boils down to laziness on the part of the average speaker. Whenever I hear someone say, for example, "Would you give me the thing by the thing? You know, on the thing?" I swear I want to reach for the nearest machete!

In high school, my freshman speech teacher would take off points for each use of "thing(s)" or "stuff". It worked during the class, but I'm afraid the words slipped back into usage after the year was over.

Yes, I find myself wanting too use "thing" and "stuff" to much because of ease, though I refuse to fall into that rut!

Detest," "loathe'" and all the rest are perfectly usable words whose only fault is that they aren't used

Not where I'm from. People in Chicago are always "Loathing" or "detesting" something!

I was talking to a friend recently, and we were trying to come up with similar distinctions of anger. Definitely, "angry," "miffed," and "mad" are fairly benign. Yet, at least to me, "livid," and "incensed" say it well when I am in fact "livid" and "incensed!"

Yes, I find myself wanting too use "thing" and "stuff" to much because of ease, though I refuse to fall into that rut!

I've watched myself, and undoubtedly I say "thing" far too much!

Quoth Kalleh,

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People in Chicago are always "Loathing" or "detesting" something!

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Perhaps their attitude's inspiration can be attributed to the climate.