*historical thesaurus of ‘oxford english dictionary’*
(2-volume set)
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-as of [7 MARCH 2024]–
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*plural* –>
‘thesauri’ / ‘thesauruses’
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*AKA* –>
“synonym dictionary”
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*a ‘reference work’ for finding ‘synonyms’ (+ sometimes ‘antonyms’) of ‘words’*
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(they are often used by ‘writers’ to help find the best word to an express an ‘idea’)
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“…to find the word, or words, by which [an] idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed…”
‘peter mark roget’
(1852)
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(‘synonym dictionaries’ have a long history)
[the word ‘thesaurus’ was used in 1852 by ‘peter mark roget’ for his roget’s thesaurus, which groups words in a ‘hierarchical taxonomy’ of ‘concepts’, but others are organized ‘alphabetically’ (or in some other way)]
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(most ‘thesauruses’ do not include ‘definitions’)
(…but many ‘dictionaries’ include listings of ‘synonyms’)
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(some ‘thesauruses’ + ‘dictionary synonym notes’ characterize the distinctions between similar words, with notes on their ‘connotations’ + varying ‘shades of meaning’)
(some ‘synonym dictionaries’ are primarily concerned with differentiating synonyms by ‘meaning’ + ‘usage’)
(‘usage manuals’ such as fowler often prescribe appropriate usage of ‘synonyms’)
(‘thesauri’ are sometimes used to avoid repetition of words, leading to ‘infelicitous elegant variation’)
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“writers sometimes use them not just to vary their vocabularies but to dress them up too much”
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*SKETCHES*
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