Both Uses of
efficacious
in
The Scarlet Letter
- It is my belief, however, that had I attempted a different order of composition, my faculties would not have been found so pointless and inefficacious.†
p. 30.6inefficacious = not effective in producing an intended effectstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inefficacious means not and reverses the meaning of efficacious. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- There were men, too, of a sturdier texture of mind than his, and endowed with a far greater share of shrewd, hard iron, or granite understanding; which, duly mingled with a fair proportion of doctrinal ingredient, constitutes a highly respectable, efficacious, and unamiable variety of the clerical species.†
p. 95.7 *efficacious = effective in producing an intended effect