when i was in high school my dad gave me a dictionary that included the year of the first known usage next to each word. for some reason that little extra really pushed a button for me. i loved knowing the “age” of words. somewhere along the decades my fascination shifted from words to symbolism. i‘ve got a battered copy of “The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols” that i’ve hauled around since the late 90s. between that and “This Means This, This Means That” by Sean Hall i’ve always got something to get lost in.
Hah! I'm an English prof *and* a 19thC specialist (ie. words + 19thC) and I didn't know any of this! I love your attention to layout and design too--so important. Thank you! My favourite reference book used to be the OED (and also the concordance to Joyce's Ulysses--but that's pretty specialized :) but now I think it might become a thesaurus printed before the format shifted. Thank you for this!
I have often thought I was somehow wrong in my love of the original format of Roget's. I feel relieved, even reborn, certainly re-motivated to write. And, in the middle of writing to reach for that old friend who has always helped me to articulate, who has gently led me to exactly the right, or at least the closest thing to the right word/thought/feeling/idea.
My dad was an English professor. When his office was cleaned out, I ended up with many of his books, including a Roget's - later than 1911, but organized just as you describe. First, I read it for fun. Then I went to grad school and actually used . Then I began teaching myself, and it went on my own office shelf. I retired last year...and now realize that the Roget's did not make it home with me. What a loss!
As for other reference books, an old favorite used to be the phone book. Not only could I spend hours looking up different names, making lists of unusual names I found, etc., but there were also maps of the city, lists of various city services, etc. Because I lived in a small Midwestern town, some of the surrounding townships also had their own listings in "our" book. When I was older and started writing fiction, I found lots of good names in phone books - not just for characters, but for streets, towns, and neighborhoods. What a geek was I...and still would be, if phone books still existed in any meaningful way.
I loved and still do love paging through my Roget's Thesaurus that I still have from my college English major days from 45 years ago. thesaurus.com is a quick and easy tool to find synonyms and antonyms but using the hardcopy Roget's opens much more discovery and a whole new world.
I find the 2019 version most intriguing. The 1911 addition, not so. (I would not want to proofread and/or edit either version.) When I was working, I had to write many different types of documents. On my desk at all times were a dictionary and a thesaurus. I would often go to the thesaurus first, not find an appropriate word for my needs and put the thesaurus back. Then I would reach for the dictionary, and in most cases, find a better selection of same-meaning words, which often led me to other words in the dictionary, and ultimately a word that was acceptable for what I was seeking. I eventually just left the thesaurus on my desk for show.
Feb 8, 2023·edited Feb 8, 2023Liked by Austin Kleon
Thank you for this fantastic post! I remember using the thesaurus as a teen, and my daughter (10) recently discovered my copy and has been browsing it herself. After reading this post from you, I took a closer look and it IS an edition organized by categories (from 1991-now I've given away my age!)
How delightful! Thanks for the encouragement to rediscover this treasured resource!
Fascinating! I love the thought of using the Thesaurus in advance as a way to generate or feed ideas for writing. And to know that Roget was making lists of words and ideas for his own creative process. I'm currently in a weekly writing group who work from prompts, then we choose one to read out loud and receive positive comments. I'm finding that both the prompts and also hearing what others have written triggers other thoughts and stories and even ways to experiment with my own writing style.
My favorite reference book is Random House's "Word Menu" by Stephen Glazier (1992, 977 pages, paperback). What Roget did for concepts like Abstract Relations, Space, Matter, etc., Glazier did for modern subjects organized into a structure of 7 Parts: Nature, Science and Technology, Domestic Life, Institutions, Arts and Leisure, Language, and The Human Condition.
On the cover, it's described as a "merging of dictionary, thesaurus, treasury of glossaries, reverse dictionary, and almanac--fully indexed."
How it works: "Each meaning or usage of a word appears as a separate entry in the appropriate place in the structure. For example, the word 'mole' appears in eight places: Animals; Chemistry; Medical Problems; Machinery; Ships and Boats; Foods; International Relations; and Strategy, Intrigue, and Deceptions."
It has one quirk that makes me smile every time I open it. In the beginning of my copy, page xiii, "Staff and Consultants," is followed by page xxiv, which contains one section of Part 3's Table of Contents, instead of whatever page xiv was. Page xxiv is then repeated in its proper place in the TOC.
In his own way, the author, Stephen Glazier, had a wide background like Roget's. The book contains a brief biography.
I've also collected specialized dictionaries of ideas, foreign, terms, concise writing, cliches, metaphors, rhyming, and reverse. Happy to provide titles and authors.
And my favorite usage reference is the "Chicago Manual of Style 17." I have it in paper and online.
I love this article and now I want to cuddle up with a an easrly edition of the book.
I often look up words that I know the meaning of to see if there are any nuances that I had missed. When I'm writing from word prompts, I find this especially helpful in deepening and widening my thinking.
Another book that as a similarity to Roget's is the Comprehensive Rhyming Dictionary by Sue Young. You don't look up a list of words that rhyme with a word, you look up the end of the word sounds. So under īte, you find bite, byte, bright, plight . . .
I had no idea about the original structure of Roget's. So cool! A fave ref book: Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez. Beautiful definitions by different poets and writers on elements of land and water. I love to drop in for random inspiration.
Wow! Thanks 4 conversations to follow w my closest guys probably at dinner. I call
Myself a writer, but there are always ways to go deeper.
when i was in high school my dad gave me a dictionary that included the year of the first known usage next to each word. for some reason that little extra really pushed a button for me. i loved knowing the “age” of words. somewhere along the decades my fascination shifted from words to symbolism. i‘ve got a battered copy of “The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols” that i’ve hauled around since the late 90s. between that and “This Means This, This Means That” by Sean Hall i’ve always got something to get lost in.
Hah! I'm an English prof *and* a 19thC specialist (ie. words + 19thC) and I didn't know any of this! I love your attention to layout and design too--so important. Thank you! My favourite reference book used to be the OED (and also the concordance to Joyce's Ulysses--but that's pretty specialized :) but now I think it might become a thesaurus printed before the format shifted. Thank you for this!
I have often thought I was somehow wrong in my love of the original format of Roget's. I feel relieved, even reborn, certainly re-motivated to write. And, in the middle of writing to reach for that old friend who has always helped me to articulate, who has gently led me to exactly the right, or at least the closest thing to the right word/thought/feeling/idea.
Who knew! Pretty interesting. Another example of how spoon fed we’ve become, well on occasion anyway-
Ordered a used copy of Roget’s as I don’t have one anymore and a copy of the picture book too
My dad was an English professor. When his office was cleaned out, I ended up with many of his books, including a Roget's - later than 1911, but organized just as you describe. First, I read it for fun. Then I went to grad school and actually used . Then I began teaching myself, and it went on my own office shelf. I retired last year...and now realize that the Roget's did not make it home with me. What a loss!
As for other reference books, an old favorite used to be the phone book. Not only could I spend hours looking up different names, making lists of unusual names I found, etc., but there were also maps of the city, lists of various city services, etc. Because I lived in a small Midwestern town, some of the surrounding townships also had their own listings in "our" book. When I was older and started writing fiction, I found lots of good names in phone books - not just for characters, but for streets, towns, and neighborhoods. What a geek was I...and still would be, if phone books still existed in any meaningful way.
I loved and still do love paging through my Roget's Thesaurus that I still have from my college English major days from 45 years ago. thesaurus.com is a quick and easy tool to find synonyms and antonyms but using the hardcopy Roget's opens much more discovery and a whole new world.
I find the 2019 version most intriguing. The 1911 addition, not so. (I would not want to proofread and/or edit either version.) When I was working, I had to write many different types of documents. On my desk at all times were a dictionary and a thesaurus. I would often go to the thesaurus first, not find an appropriate word for my needs and put the thesaurus back. Then I would reach for the dictionary, and in most cases, find a better selection of same-meaning words, which often led me to other words in the dictionary, and ultimately a word that was acceptable for what I was seeking. I eventually just left the thesaurus on my desk for show.
Thank you for this fantastic post! I remember using the thesaurus as a teen, and my daughter (10) recently discovered my copy and has been browsing it herself. After reading this post from you, I took a closer look and it IS an edition organized by categories (from 1991-now I've given away my age!)
How delightful! Thanks for the encouragement to rediscover this treasured resource!
Fascinating! I love the thought of using the Thesaurus in advance as a way to generate or feed ideas for writing. And to know that Roget was making lists of words and ideas for his own creative process. I'm currently in a weekly writing group who work from prompts, then we choose one to read out loud and receive positive comments. I'm finding that both the prompts and also hearing what others have written triggers other thoughts and stories and even ways to experiment with my own writing style.
As always, thanks for a great topic, Austin!
My favorite reference book is Random House's "Word Menu" by Stephen Glazier (1992, 977 pages, paperback). What Roget did for concepts like Abstract Relations, Space, Matter, etc., Glazier did for modern subjects organized into a structure of 7 Parts: Nature, Science and Technology, Domestic Life, Institutions, Arts and Leisure, Language, and The Human Condition.
On the cover, it's described as a "merging of dictionary, thesaurus, treasury of glossaries, reverse dictionary, and almanac--fully indexed."
How it works: "Each meaning or usage of a word appears as a separate entry in the appropriate place in the structure. For example, the word 'mole' appears in eight places: Animals; Chemistry; Medical Problems; Machinery; Ships and Boats; Foods; International Relations; and Strategy, Intrigue, and Deceptions."
It has one quirk that makes me smile every time I open it. In the beginning of my copy, page xiii, "Staff and Consultants," is followed by page xxiv, which contains one section of Part 3's Table of Contents, instead of whatever page xiv was. Page xxiv is then repeated in its proper place in the TOC.
In his own way, the author, Stephen Glazier, had a wide background like Roget's. The book contains a brief biography.
I've also collected specialized dictionaries of ideas, foreign, terms, concise writing, cliches, metaphors, rhyming, and reverse. Happy to provide titles and authors.
And my favorite usage reference is the "Chicago Manual of Style 17." I have it in paper and online.
I had never seen this book up until now... I will definitely need to get myself a copy!
Thanks Austin
There is a children's book about Roget that you and your boys would probably enjoy: The Right Word:
Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet. The "illustrations" are collages.
I love this article and now I want to cuddle up with a an easrly edition of the book.
I often look up words that I know the meaning of to see if there are any nuances that I had missed. When I'm writing from word prompts, I find this especially helpful in deepening and widening my thinking.
Another book that as a similarity to Roget's is the Comprehensive Rhyming Dictionary by Sue Young. You don't look up a list of words that rhyme with a word, you look up the end of the word sounds. So under īte, you find bite, byte, bright, plight . . .
I had no idea about the original structure of Roget's. So cool! A fave ref book: Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape edited by Barry Lopez. Beautiful definitions by different poets and writers on elements of land and water. I love to drop in for random inspiration.