Hi, Roy!  Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:   
      
   ak>  A man went across a frozen river and fell through an   
   ak>  icy crack. Another man jumped into the water and pulled   
   ak>  him out. A witness began prasing the saviour, calling   
   ak>  him a hero. "You were so magnanimous!   
      
   ak>  The witness thought that the hero hated the fallen man   
   ak>  very much, but he saved him anyway on the ground of   
   ak>  humanism and high morality. I had a difficulty when I   
   ak>  chose the word. Can you suggest you variant?   
      
   RW>  The 'witness' could have been a learned man with a   
   RW>  vocabulary that matches the use of such an extraordinary   
   RW>  word as magnanimous.   
      
      
               Uh-huh.  Such beloved authors as James Fenimore Cooper, Mark   
   Twain, and Robert Louis Stevenson used "in character" dialogue which reflected   
   the way various people might have spoken.  Joe Average probably wouldn't use   
   words like "magnanimous".  Without knowing more about this particular   
   individual, however, we can't easily guess the limits of his vocabulary.   
      
      
      
   RW>  A doctor, lawyer, college professor, maybe even a judge   
   RW>  in life, but a witness to an accident in the meantime, who   
   RW>  apparently knew of a disliking between the saved and savior,   
   RW>  would perhaps have used the word 'noble'...because it was   
   RW>  a noble thing that he did to help someone with whom he wasn't   
   RW>  exactly on friendly terms.   
      
      
               My initial response to Alexander's query would have been "generous"   
   ... but according to my Gage dictionary "magnanimous" = "noble in soul or mind"   
   *and* "generous in forgiving".  IOW we were both right.  A doctor, lawyer,   
   etc. could indeed be familiar enough with Latin to say "magnanimous" if he   
   felt that was the word which best explained his interpretation of what was   
   going on.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)