Careful Words

counterfeit (n.)

counterfeit (v.)

counterfeit (adj.)

Where glowing embers through the room

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom.

John Milton (1608-1674): Il Penseroso. Line 79.

Look here, upon this picture, and on this,

The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.

See, what a grace was seated on this brow:

Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;

An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;

A station like the herald Mercury

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,—

A combination and a form indeed,

Where every god did seem to set his seal,

To give the world assurance of a man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act iii. Sc. 4.