thesaurus

Pronunciation

• IPA: /θɪˈsɔːɹəs/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin thesaurus (“treasury, treasure”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “treasure, treasury, storehouse”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which Watkins relates to tithénai “to put”,^[4] though Beekes takes it as a Pre-Greek loanword.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A treasury or storehouse of knowledge, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia, in Latin titles (1565).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

In English the word meant a treasury, as of a temple, from 1823,^[3][4][7] and a dictionary or encyclopedia full of information from 1840;^[3][4] early compilers had used thesaurarie.^[3][4] The sense of a collection of words arranged by meaning comes from Roget's Thesaurus (1852),^[4][7] and in the U.S. it came to mean a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms.^[7][2][6] In information science it names a classified list of index terms (1957).^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1565 – a storehouse of knowledge, in Latin titles.^[7][3]
• 1592 – thesaurarie.^[3]
• 1823 – a treasury.^[3][4][7]
• 1840 – a comprehensive reference book.^[3][4]
• 1852 – Roget's Thesaurus.^[4][7]
• 1957 – a list of index terms.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A book of synonyms, often with related words and antonyms.
2. A book of the specialized vocabulary of a field, or a list of subject headings for indexing.
3. A dictionary, encyclopedia or other comprehensive reference book.
4. A storehouse or treasury.

Word family

• thesaural

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster gives thesauri and thesauruses as plurals.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press