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URI A library of words: Discovering Roget's Thesaurus (2023)
MichaelMoser123 wrote 2 hours 39 min ago:
I once had a python side project, it parses the 1911 edition of Roget
Thesaurus into memory and provides some queries.
URI [1]: https://github.com/MoserMichael/roget-thesaurus-parser
folex wrote 3 hours 51 min ago:
Where does the stereotype 'thesaurus = synonyms + antonyms' come from?
I'm not a native english speaker, and I never heard that idea besides
in, I'd guess, Friends TV show.
I've used thesauruses since my childhood for exactly the task of
looking up meanings, explanations, perhaps some etymology baked in.
For English, I always use WordNet, it is quite good and works offline
on Android.
For my basic level of Chinese, Outliers dictionaries are so far the
best I have found, but that's mainly due to my heavy reliance on the
etymology provided there.
Well, I guess I got carried away a bit. Back to my question, where
thesaurus=synonyms+antonyms comes from?
vunderba wrote 1 hour 23 min ago:
I'm not sure stereotype is the correct word here. But even setting
that aside, a thesaurus being a referential work containing words
grouped by similarity is the CONVENTIONAL definition.
Everyone of my friends and family had one growing up. It wasn't
completely uncommon as a young child to glaze your eyes "beautiful
mind style" to suss out repetitious or excessive duplicate word usage
in your hastily prepared 5-paragraph MLA format essay and then run it
through the nearest Merriam-Webster thesaurus.
URI [1]: https://youtu.be/XAD13c3UkS0?t=49
svat wrote 2 hours 49 min ago:
The usage of "thesaurus" in English for a kind of book dates back to
the first one by Peter Mark Roget in 1852, which was indeed synonyms
and antonyms: [1] see the Project Gutenberg link mentioned in another
comment: [2] (or indeed, just read the posted article here).
This is still the primary meaning of "thesaurus" in English, and
contrasted with "dictionary": [3] It's very unusual for a thesaurus
to contain meanings (beyond the category head/name) and etymology,
let alone explanation. Such things are usually found in a dictionary
instead.
So it's more a question for you: where did your unusual idea of
"thesaurus" come from? As one of your examples you mention
dictionaries, so that's especially confusing.
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roget%27s_Thesaurus
URI [2]: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10681/pg10681-images.ht...
URI [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thesaurus
opello wrote 1 hour 30 min ago:
I'd assume from the earlier meaning of "thesaurus" which comes from
"treasury," or as it exists in my mind, treasure chest.
> The meaning "encyclopedia filled with information" is from 1840,
but it existed earlier as thesaurarie (1590s), used as a title by
some early dictionary compilers, on the notion of thesaurus
verborum "a treasury of words." The meaning "collection of words
arranged according to sense" is attested from 1852 in Roget's
title.
from:
URI [1]: https://www.etymonline.com/word/thesaurus
esafak wrote 3 hours 39 min ago:
From the writer's need to find a more suitable word than the ones he
knows.
ttctciyf wrote 7 hours 43 min ago:
The author notes:
> since around 1962, publishers have abandoned the side-by-side layout
of opposing categories which Roget insisted on as a visual
representation of the opposing ideas
illustrated by the original's side-by-side entries for 615 Good and 616
Evil, seeing this as an unfortunate
> example of one of the many ways book design is actually getting less
sophisticated over time.
It appears the Gutenberg project also see value in preserving the two
columns, at least in their html edition, as can be seen in their
rendition of the same passages: [1] . (Link is to a 10M html file).
(Though it seems things have moved on, since Evil is now #619.)
Surely there must be more programmatic electronic editions, though,
given the highly tractable organisation of the book?
URI [1]: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10681/pg10681-images.html...
WillAdams wrote 2 hours 40 min ago:
I believe the "Wordweb" program had something along those lines ---
at least I seem to remember it being easy to click through a word,
through synonyms, and also review antonyms:
URI [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordWeb
5- wrote 7 hours 48 min ago:
the cambridge dictionary thesaurus has a similar organisation and i
always thought it was a unique quirk (further promulgated by the mobile
version calling it "smart thesaurus").
URI [1]: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/thesaurus/articles/difference
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