subside [abate, decrease] vs. fade away [abate, decrease]

Hi. I have been studying the word abate.

1) abate: To lessen or make something lessen gradually (synonyms:decrease, subside, lessen)

"Creative energies of those involved had not abated, and many, like Zora Neale Hurston, produced their best work through the 1930s."




2) abate: to lessen or make something lessen gradually (synonyms:decrease, lessen, fade away)

"Epidemics of cholera plagued Europe and the United States in the 19th century, but abated after improvements to the water supply."


There are two different "abate" having the same definitions and the same two synonyms as decrease and lessen. Synonyms subside and fade away seems distinctions between these two meanings but I cannot get the difference between them.



Can we say for first sentence "Creative energies of those involved had not fade away, and many, like Zora Neale Hurston, produced their best work through the 1930s."

Can we say for the second sentence "Epidemics of cholera plagued Europe and the United States in the 19th century, but subsided after improvements to the water supply.

Source: Selected Words by Şükrü Nural.

Thank you.

I think these are identical definitions (one meaning), they just picked a different list of synonyms. Does the book you got them from say they are different meanings?

hhtt said:

Can we say for first sentence "Creative energies of those involved had not fade away, and many, like Zora Neale Hurston, produced their best work through the 1930s."

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In this context "had not faded away" would mean "had not disappeared completely". The meaning you want is "had not faded" meaning "were still as strong as before" or "did not lessen at all".

hhtt said:

Can we say for the second sentence "Epidemics of cholera plagued Europe and the United States in the 19th century, but subsided after improvements to the water supply.

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Yes. That means the same, and subsided is a better word here.

Checking our dictionary (search box on this page) and also dictionary.com for the intransitive verb abate, there are is only one meaning (ignoring legal terms): diminish in intensity, degree, amount.

When I think of abate I think of a town that is flooded. Eventually the flood abates, the waters subside. Both words carry the meaning that their noun "previously grew large, and is now lessening" like a flood. Other words like lessen and decrease and diminish do not have that "previously grew large" meaning. And fades away usually implies "decreases to zero, totally disappears" which are not implied by abate or subside: they say it is decreasing, but don't say whether it goes to zero or doesn't.

It's probably like that in every language: so-called synonyms all have different meanings.

dojibear said:

I think these are identical definitions (one meaning), they just picked a different list of synonyms. Does the book you got them from say they are different meanings? .

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Not exactly but they were classified differently with different sentences and one different synonyms as I refer to distinctions/difference in my #1.
Thank you.

hhtt said:

Not exactly but they were classified differently with different sentences and one different synonyms as I refer to distinctions/difference in my #1.
Thank you.

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This might serve to teach that "synonym" does not mean "always completely identical in meaning"

I think that when you speak of emotions is " subside" while a situation/whether condition. attitude, is "abate"

I am sure you are right. You've seen examples of how they are used, and you've noticed patterns.

I haven't noticed the patterns for these words, so I can't comment on them. But seeing real examples works better than any artificial rules.