Roll over Roget
When did a lavatory become a loo? And why were Victorian trousers "unmentionables"? The world's first historical thesaurus, which is to be published after more than 40 years of research, claims to have the answers.
Loved by writers, not to mention crossword cheats, Roget's Thesaurus has never been out of print since it was published in 1852 to "assist in literary composition".
The best known dictionary of its kind, which groups synonyms - words with similar meanings - has been a source of reference for more than 150 years.
But a new beast is emerging from Britain's vast ocean of words, a colossus to rival Roget.
The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, published by Oxford University Press, is the culmination of 44 years of painstaking work by scholars at the University of Glasgow.
It not only groups words with similar meanings but does so in chronological order according to their history - with the oldest first and most recent last.
Read entire article at BBC
Loved by writers, not to mention crossword cheats, Roget's Thesaurus has never been out of print since it was published in 1852 to "assist in literary composition".
The best known dictionary of its kind, which groups synonyms - words with similar meanings - has been a source of reference for more than 150 years.
But a new beast is emerging from Britain's vast ocean of words, a colossus to rival Roget.
The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, published by Oxford University Press, is the culmination of 44 years of painstaking work by scholars at the University of Glasgow.
It not only groups words with similar meanings but does so in chronological order according to their history - with the oldest first and most recent last.