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The biggest thesaurus in the world will be published this autumn after a labour of love spanning five decades. Work on the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1965.
With 800,000 meanings for 600,000 words organised into more than 230,000 categories and subcategories, the thesaurus is twice the size of Roget's version.
Christian Kay, one of the four coeditors, began working on the project in the late 1960s, when she was 27. She also became a lecturer in the English language department of the University of Glasgow. Professor Kay, now 69, said: "I started on this as a research assistant — I didn't think at the time I would be involved 40 years later..."
New Oxford Thesaurus a 44-Year Labour of Linguistic Love
Seeded on Mon Jul 6, 2009 7:38 AM EDT
Article Source: The Times- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (7)
Wow! What a project!
The thesaurus neared completion in 1980, but the team then took the decision to include material from updated versions of the OED. This added almost another 30 years to the task, including words such as “speed-dating”.
Incredible to think that 'updating' it took another 30 years! How satisfying for Professor Kay at least!
- 1 vote
#1 - Mon Jul 6, 2009 7:39 AM EDTAbsolutely amazing!
I wonder for how much it will retail. Definitely a Christmas list idea.
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#2 - Mon Jul 6, 2009 9:04 AM EDTYou may want to save up - the Oxford University Press site indicates that it will retail for US$395. Hope Santa can leave that for you under the tree!
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Oh my... *nearly faints*
Well, in that case, my one and only Christmas gift for the next four years! =)
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Very interesting, although I'm not sure it's the largest thesaurus in the world (although it may be the largest thesaurus for the English language). It's certainly not the longest running thesaurus project in the world, which distinction probably goes to the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL), an ongoing project since 1894. This year they expect to publish "P", with a total project completion date scheduled for 2050.
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#3 - Wed Jul 8, 2009 2:29 PM EDTThanks Spiffie, for letting us know about the Latin project. Perhaps in our lifetime, we'll see that completed!
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Wow. *And I jizz in my pants* I'd love to have that book. Except it's about $350 above my budget.
Maybe I'll get my school's Linguistics dept. to buy a copy to lend to me...
#4 - Thu Jul 9, 2009 10:18 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
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