Thesaurus


A thesaurus or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
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.
Most thesauruses do not include definitions, but many dictionaries include listings of synonyms.
Some thesauruses and dictionary synonym notes characterize the distinctions between similar words, with notes on their "connotations and varying shades of meaning". Some synonym dictionaries are primarily concerned with differentiating synonyms by meaning and usage. Usage manuals such as Fowler often prescribe appropriate usage of synonyms.
Thesauri are sometimes used to avoid repetition of words, leading to elegant variation, which is often criticized by usage manuals: "writers sometimes use them not just to vary their vocabularies but to dress them up too much".

Etymology

The word "thesaurus" comes from Latin , which in turn comes from Greek or encyclopedia, as in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. It was Roget that introduced the meaning "collection of words arranged according to sense", in 1852.

History

In antiquity, Philo of Byblos authored the first text that could now be called a thesaurus. In Sanskrit, the Amarakosha is a thesaurus in verse form, written in the 4th century.
The study of synonyms became an important theme in 18th-century philosophy, and Condillac wrote, but never published, a dictionary of synonyms.
Some early synonym dictionaries include:
Roget's Thesaurus, first compiled in 1805 by Peter Mark Roget, and published in 1852, follows John Wilkins' semantic arrangement of 1668. Unlike earlier synonym dictionaries, it does not include definitions or aim to help the user to choose among synonyms. It has been continuously in print since 1852, and remains widely used across the English-speaking world. Roget described his thesaurus in the foreword to the first edition:
It is now nearly fifty years since I first projected a system of verbal classification similar to that on which the present work is founded. Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my own deficiencies, I had, in the year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus now published.

Organization

Conceptual

Roget's original thesaurus was organized into 1000 conceptual Heads organized into a four-level taxonomy. For example, liability was classed under V..iv: Class five, Volition: the exercise of the will; Division Two: Social volition; Section 4: Possessive Relations; Subsection 4: Monetary relations. Each head includes direct synonyms: Debt, obligation, liability,...; related concepts: interest, usance, usury; related persons: debtor, debitor,... defaulter ; verbs: to be in debt, to owe,... see Borrow ; phrases: to run up a bill or score,...; and adjectives: in debt, indebted, owing,.... Numbers in parentheses are cross-references to other Heads.
The book starts with a Tabular Synopsis of Categories laying out the hierarchy, then the main body of the thesaurus listed by Head, and then an alphabetical index listing the different Heads under which a word may be found: Liable, subject to, 177; debt, 806; duty, 926.
Some recent versions have kept the same organization, though often with more detail under each Head. Others have made modest changes such as eliminating the four-level taxonomy and adding new heads: one has 1075 Heads in fifteen Classes.
Some non-English thesauri have also adopted this model.

Alphabetical

Other thesauri and synonym dictionaries are organized alphabetically.
Most repeat the list of synonyms under each word.
Some designate a principal entry for each concept and cross-reference it.
A third system interfiles words and conceptual headings. Francis March's Thesaurus Dictionary gives for liability:, each of which is a conceptual heading. The article has multiple subheadings, including Nouns of Agent, Verbs, Verbal Expressions, etc. Under each are listed synonyms with brief definitions, e.g. "Credit. Transference of property on promise of future payment." The conceptual headings are not organized into a taxonomy.
Benjamin Lafaye's Synonymes français is organized around morphologically related families of synonyms, and his Dictionnaire des synonymes de la langue française is mostly alphabetical, but also includes a section on morphologically related synonyms, which is organized by prefix, suffix, or construction.

Contrasting senses

Before Roget, most thesauri and dictionary synonym notes included discussions of the differences among near-synonyms, as do some modern ones.
A few modern synonym dictionaries, notably in French, are primarily devoted to discussing the precise demarcations among synonyms.

Additional elements

Some include short definitions.
Some give illustrative phrases.
Some include lists of objects by category, e.g. breeds of dogs.
The Historical Thesaurus of English is organized taxonomically, and includes the date when each word came to have a given meaning. It has the novel and unique goal of "charting the semantic development of the huge and varied vocabulary of English".

Bilingual

Bilingual synonym dictionaries are designed for language learners. One such dictionary gives various French words listed alphabetically, with an English translation and an example of use. Another one is organized taxonomically with examples, translations, and some usage notes.

Information science and natural language processing

In library and information science, a thesaurus is a kind of controlled vocabulary.
A thesaurus can form part of an ontology and be represented in the Simple Knowledge Organization System.
Thesauri are used in natural language processing for word-sense disambiguation and text simplification for machine translation systems.