C. O. Sylvester Mawson
Published: 2015-07-21
Total Pages: 694
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Excerpt from Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases Classified and Arranged So as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and Assist in Literary Composition There is perhaps no more striking testimony to the usefulness of Roget's Thesaurus (on which this work is based) than the many editions which have been periodically demanded. This very popularity lays an added responsibility upon the publishers, and makes the editor's task one of no slight undertaking. A treasury of words and ideas must keep pace with the growth of knowledge and language or lose its place in the forerank of indispensable volumes. To enhance the value of the book and bring it abreast of modem culture and requirements was the aim of the present editor. The original plan of the work has been followed in the main, for that which has stood the test of over half a century, and made the name of Roget of almost classic worth, is not one to be lightly abandoned. But while the labors of the author have been embodied in their entirety, so many new features have been introduced and the time-honored structure has been so much enlarged and modernized that this edition may not unreasonably claim to be a new work, and not a revision in the usual significance of the term. A comparison of the new Index with the old will afford some idea of the extended scope of the present work. Briefly the new features are these: - 1. All obsolete words are so characterized. The editor's first inclination was to eliminate them, but realizing that their retention might be of service to many writers, and the more so if clearly indicated, the method of marking common to many dictionaries was adopted. The Oxford English Dictionary was the final authority for determining these obsoletisms. 2. Slang and cant expressions are specially marked, so as to increase the usefulness of the book to the playwright; the novelist, and the writer generally. In every instance the leading dictionaries (Oxford, Webster's, Century, and Standard) have been followed in distinguishing such terms from those of unchallenged acceptance. 3. Americanisms have been introduced for the first time in any edition of the Thesaurus. Just as no English dictionary would be complete which did not embody these virile specimens of our language, so is their inclusion all the more incumbent in a work of this nature. Great care was called for in the selection and grouping of these New World expressions. The list, though by no means exhaustive, is probably more representative and complete than any collection of Americanisms outside a modem dictionary. What is an Americanism? The answer is essentially complex. The term includes (1) English words employed differently to I what they are in Great Britain; (2) words that arc archaic or obsolescent in England, but of everyday usage in America; (3) English provincialisms in general use on this side of the Atlantic; (4) words which have changed their meaning in England, but still retain their original meaning here; (5) words assimilated from European and Indian languages; (6) negroisms; (7) words of strictly American coinage. I In treading on such debatable ground the ordinary dictionary of Americanisms is I not found to be very reliable, for it frequently includes as "Americanisms" many words by no means peculiar to this country and which are as much British as American. Webster's New International Dictionary proved itself a safer guide, and in characterizing the various Americanisms its lead was invariably followed. The innovation should be one of undoubted utility, besides preventing confusion in the choice of true American terms. 4. Numerous phrases and quotations have been added, and their authors cited. In making these selections the needs of the average individual and of the scholar were alike home in mind.
