Thesaurus of English words and phrases : classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas and to assist in literary composition / enl. by John Lewis Roget.

  • Roget, Peter Mark, 1779-1869.
Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thesaurus of English words and phrases : classified and arranged so as to facilitate the expression of ideas and to assist in literary composition / enl. by John Lewis Roget. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be appropriately used in relation to the leading idea for which that category was designed, we should impair, if not destroy, the whole use and value of the book. For, in the endeavour to enrich our treasury of expression, we might easily allow ourselves to be led imperceptibly onward by the natural association of one word with another, and to add word after word, until group after group would successively be absorbed under some single heading, and the fundamental divisions of the system be effaced. The small cluster of nearly synonymous words, which had formed the nucleus of a category, would be lost in a sea of phrases, and it would become difficult to recognize those which were peculiarly adapted to express the leading ideas. These considerations were material in dealing with the new and multi¬ tudinous store of words and phrases which the author had accumulated. Many of these were altogether new to the Thesaurus. Many were merely repetitions in new places of words already included in its pages. With reference to cases similar to the latter, .the author had declared it to have been a general rule with him ^to place words and phrases which appertain more especially to one head, also under other heads to which they have a relation,’ whenever it appeared to him That this repetition would suit the convenience of the inquirer and spare him the trouble of turning to other parts of the work.’ But, with the now increased mass of words, it became a question, in many cases, whether such repetition would still prove convenient. Where categories might by that course be unduly swollen, or where they might, by reason of their being separated from each other by subtile distinctions or faint lines of demarcation, be thereby too nearly assimilated, I thought it would often be better to confine words of the kind referred to to their primary headings. The necessity of keep¬ ing the book within reasonable dimensions had also to be borne in mind. Under these circumstances, the best method of ensuring the ready accessibility of the multitude of words now to be dealt with, and at the same time preserving unimpaired the unity of the several categories, appeared to me to lie in the copious use of references from one place in the book to another. Relying on this contrivance as a means of opening more widely the resources of the collection, by making the groups of words mutually suggestive, and thereby leading not only to more varied forms of expression, but to kindred ideas, I have added largely to the references already inserted by the author. I have also ventured occa¬ sionally to substitute a reference for a group of words, when the identical group existed in another place, and could thus be made immediately available. In order, at the same time, to make the value of the references more appreciable, I have (whenever it has appeared to me to be necessary) inserted, in a parenthesis, a word indicating the nature of the group or category referred to. Any one using the book will thereby be enabled to Judge whether it will be worth his while to turn to the place in question.