Editing Roget's Thesaurus

{{Short description|Synonym dictionary (1805) by Peter Mark Roget}}
{{Italic title}}
'''''Roget's Thesaurus''''' is a widely used English-language [[thesaurus]], created in 1805 by [[Peter Mark Roget]] (1779–1869), British [[physician]], [[natural theologian]] and [[lexicographer]].

== History ==
It was released to the public on 29 April 1852.<ref>Hüllen{{full citation needed|reason=Which title? 2004 or 2009?|date=February 2022}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2020}} Roget was inspired by the [[Utilitarianism|Utilitarian]] teachings of Jeremy Bentham and wished to help "those who are painfully groping their way and struggling with the difficulties of composition {{omission}} this work processes to  hold out a helping hand".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=How to be Really Well Informed in Minutes: All you need to know about everything that matters from the popular 'Briefing' columns|publisher=Ebury Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0-09194-706-4|location=Croydon|pages=74–77}}</ref> The [[Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum (Jacksonville)|Karpeles Library Museum]] houses the original manuscript in its collection.<ref name=karpeles/>

Roget's schema of classes and their subdivisions is based on the philosophical work of [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] (see {{Format link|Leibniz#Symbolic thought}}),{{cn|date=February 2022}} itself following a long tradition of [[epistemological]] work starting with [[Aristotle]]. Some of [[Aristotle's Categories]] are included in Roget's first class, "abstract relations".

== Content ==
Roget described his thesaurus in the foreword to the first edition:

{{blockquote|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.{{sfnp|Lloyd|1982|p=xix}}}}

''Roget's Thesaurus'' is composed of six primary classes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/Roget/contents.html |title=Table of contents |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316070554/http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/Roget/contents.html |archivedate=March 16, 2013 }}</ref> Each class is composed of multiple divisions and then sections. This may be conceptualized as a tree containing over a thousand branches for individual "meaning clusters" or semantically linked words. Although these words are not strictly [[synonyms]], they can be viewed as colours or connotations of a meaning or as a spectrum of a concept.{{cn|date=February 2022}} One of the most general words is chosen to typify the spectrum as its headword, which labels the whole group.

== Editions ==
The original edition had 15,000 [[word]]s and each successive [[edition (book)|edition]] has been larger,<ref name=karpeles>{{cite web|url=http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/rogetdis.html |title=Roget's Thesaurus |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091228110440/http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/rogetdis.html |archivedate=2009-12-28 |website=Karcpeles Library}}</ref>  with the most recent edition (the eighth) containing 443,000 words.<ref>{{Cite web|last=HarperCollins|date=November 5, 2019|title=Roget's International Thesaurus, 8th Edition|url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/rogets-international-thesaurus-8th-edition-thumb-indexed-barbara-ann-kipfer?variant=32116577566754|access-date=October 17, 2020|archive-date=May 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506112000/https://www.harpercollins.com/products/rogets-international-thesaurus-8th-edition-thumb-indexed-barbara-ann-kipfer?variant=32116577566754|url-status=live}}</ref> The book is updated regularly and each edition is heralded as a gauge to contemporary terms; but each edition keeps true to the original classifications established by Roget.<ref name=":0" /> The name "Roget" is [[trademark]]ed in parts of the world, such as the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office|title=Intellectual Property Office|website=GOV.UK|access-date=May 13, 2020|archive-date=November 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105052526/http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ohim?ohimnum=E5374426|url-status=live}}</ref>  By itself, it is not protected in the United States, where use of the name "Roget" in the title of a thesaurus does not necessarily indicate any relationship to Roget directly; it has come to be seen as a [[Genericized trademark|generic]] thesaurus name.{{sfnp|Lloyd|1982|p=xiii|ps=, quote: "The name has become synonymous with the ''Thesaurus'', yet Dr Roget himself is a shadowy figure."}}

== See also ==
* ''[[Moby Thesaurus]]''

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{Citation |last1=Baumgartner |first1=Jason L. |last2=Waugh |first2=Timothy A. |editor-first1=Robert F. |editor-first2=Philip C. |editor-first3=Matti |editor-first4=Jonathan C. |editor-first5=Craig M. |editor-last1=Erbacher |editor-last2=Chen |editor-last3=Groehn |editor-last4=Roberts |editor-last5=Wittenbrink |year=2002 |title=Roget2000: A 2D Hyperbolic Tree Visualization of Roget's Thesaurus |journal=Visualization and Data Analysis 2002 |volume=4665 |page=339 |publisher=School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University |location=Bloomington, IN|doi=10.1117/12.458803 |bibcode=2002SPIE.4665..339B |s2cid=893530 }}
* {{Citation |last=Emblen |first=D.L. |year=1969 |title=The Library of Peter Mark Roget |journal=[[The Book Collector]] |volume=18 |issue=4 (winter) |pages=449–469}}
* {{Citation |last=Hüllen |first=Werner |title=A History of Roget's Thesaurus: origins, development, and design |date=2004 |place=Oxford [England] |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=1-4237-8876-1 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199254729.001.0001}}
* {{Citation |last=Hüllen |first=Werner |title=Networks and knowledge in Roget's Thesaurus |date=2009 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-955323-5 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199553235.001.0001}}
* {{Citation |last=Kendall |first=Joshua C. |title=The Man Who Made Lists: love, death, madness, and the creation of Roget's Thesaurus |year=2008 |place=New York |isbn=978-0-399-15462-1 |oclc=156902279}}
* {{Citation|editor-last=Lloyd|editor-first=Sue|title=Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases|date=1982|publisher=Longman|last=Roget|first=Peter Mark|isbn=0-582-55635-X|location=Harlow, Essex|oclc=8546324|ref={{harvid|Lloyd|1982}}}}
* {{Citation |last=Roget|first=Peter Mark |title=The Original Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases |year=1962 |editor-last=Dutch, Robert A. |orig-year=1852 |edition=Americanized |place=New York |publisher=Longmans, Green & Co./Dell Publishing Co., Inc.}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Wiktionary|Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus}}
{{Commons}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130502153549/http://www.rain.org/~karpeles/rogetfrm.html ''Roget's Thesaurus'': The Original Manuscript at Karpeles Manuscript Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202222126/http://machaut.uchicago.edu/rogets Searchable 1911 version hosted by the University of Chicago]
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10681 ''Roget's Thesaurus'' at Project Gutenberg]
* [http://www.roget.org/ ''Roget's Hyperlinked Thesaurus''] - (No longer maintained)
<!-- thesaurus.com no longer uses Roget's thesaurus, but instead uses a substantially different "Roget's II".  Put this link back if/when they go back to the old thesaurus. * [http://thesaurus.reference.com Current searchable version at Reference.com] -->
* [https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rogets-thesaurus ROGETS THESAURUS], encyclopedia.com
* [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Peter-Mark-Roget Peter Mark Roget], britannica.com
* [https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/rogets-thesaurus The Remarkable Roget's Thesaurus], merriam-webster.com

[[Category:1852 books]]
[[Category:Classification systems]]
[[Category:Lexicography]]
[[Category:Thesauri (lexicography)]]