“What’s another word for thesaurus?” (Stephen Wright)

A thesaurus is a great help if you want to increase your vocabulary. Whereas a dictionary gives you a definition and the pronunciation of a word, a thesaurus lists synonyms (a word or phrase which has the same or similar meaning as another word or phrase) and also sometimes antonyms (a word or phrase which has the opposite meaning of another word or phrase) of it.

The word ‘thesaurus’ comes from Latin and Ancient Greek, and means a collection of important or valuable things. The most well known modern thesaurus is ‘Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ which the British Dr. Peter Mark Roget began work on in 1805, publishing it in 1852; it has not been out of print since. However, there are other examples even dating back to around 100AD – the Greek author Philo of Byblos wrote a dictionary of synonyms around this time.

It took Roget almost fifty years to single-handedly complete his thesaurus, although he did not devote himself entirely to it until he had retired from medicine in 1840. Even so, it was a huge achievement for one person. In comparison Samuel Johnson devoted nine years of his life to compiling the first English language dictionary and he had six assistants (all crammed into his attic, by the way).

The University of Glasgow’s English Language Department has spent more than forty years producing the ‘Historical Thesaurus of English’ (HTE). As its name suggests, this latest thesaurus does not just list synonyms, but groups words in chronological order beginning with the oldest from Old English up until the newest words of 2003; in total it covers more than 920,000 words. It is claimed to be the largest ever thesaurus and the first historical one in any language. You can find where a word came from and how it evolved over time. You can also search for words which were used during a particular period of time enabling you to find all the words Shakespeare had available to him meaning ‘happiness’, for instance. No wonder it took such a large team of people so many decades to complete it and from such humble beginnings (they started by writing words on individual slips of paper).

While for most of us the HTE will be too expensive (around £250) and even too cumbersome to have our own copy when it is published in October, the good news is it will be available online in the future, linked to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

How many words are there in the English language?

After reading that the English language will soon (June 10, 2009 to be precise) encompass one million words, I was going to write my thoughts about it. However, I have since read David Crystal’s opinion, entitled ‘On the biggest load of rubbish…’ (which gives you a hint about where he stands on the matter). I would never pretend to have his vast knowledge or ability to explain linguistic issues so clearly, therefore I will just encourage you to read his expert thoughts.

When English was young

Researchers at Reading University have reached the conclusion that some of the oldest words in the English language, going back tens of thousands of years, are ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘two’ and ‘three’. They also claim to be able to calculate the likelihood of certain words completely dying out, mentioning ‘squeeze’, ‘guts’, ‘stick’ and even ‘bad’ as likely future candidates.

Like an English language time machine, after punching a year into their supercomputer it produces a list of words that would have been, or will be, understood at that time. Just imagine how much easier it would have been for Bill and Ted to communicate with the historical figures they met if they had had access to such useful information; although if that was the case maybe the word ‘dude’ would have become extinct by now!

If, like me, you are thinking why the number ‘one’ seems to have been forgotten, it is believed to have followed very quickly afterwards. However, that just leads me to wondering why ‘one’ was not as important as ‘two’ and ‘three’. Perhaps the concept of ‘one’ was fairly easy to imply and the use of it was therefore not so immediately necessary?

The evolution of words is supposedly dependent on the usage of them; those which are used more frequently are far more resistant to change. It makes sense that words with very precise meanings like the pronouns ‘I’ and ‘we’ remain, whereas other less frequently used words (adjectives and verbs for example) can easily be replaced by other words having the same or similar meaning and thus become extinct. So, am I now left to ponder why the death of one of the first words we all learn (‘bad’) has been predicted and what on earth it will be superseded by.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7911645.stm