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Unit 9: Dictionaries

The lexicon of writers or individual works is the subject to stylistics and poetics. (It contains not Notes
only natural worlds but also obsolete words. It covers historical words, archaisms and
neologisms.)
Thesaurus: The term ‘thesaurus’ has its origin in Greek. It means ‘a storehouse’ or ‘treasury’ or ‘a
repository’. Peter Mark Roget was the first person to use ‘thesaurus’ for English dictionary in
1852. The term is now used in two different senses.
Traditionally it was developed to aid literary men in finding the most appropriate alternate
word to express an idea. The words in a thesaurus are, therefore, arranged by ideas. All other
synonyms of an idea with varying shades and different grammatical form are brought together
under one word in the first part. The second part is a list of words arranged alphabetically, but
instead of giving meaning, it guides to the appropriate entry number in the first part.

Example: Roget’s International Thesaurus. Ed. 3. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH, 1978.
The Original Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases revised and modernised new
edition/by Robert A. Dutch. New York: St. Martins, 1965.
Spines Thesaurus: a Controlled and Structured Vocabulary for Information Processing in the
Field of Technology for Development. Ed.2. Paris: UNESCO, 1988. 2v.
Vocabulary: The name ‘vocabulary’ originates from a Medieval Latin word ‘vocabularium’. It is
often used for a stock of words and phrases with brief explanations and meanings restricted to
a single work or author. The entries are usually arranged in alphabetical order. It comprises
words of language, words available to or used by an individual, words appropriate to a subject
or occupation, word list developed for a particular purpose, a list or set of code words, gestures,
symbols, style or colours.

Example: An International vocabulary of technical Theatre Terms in 8 languages.
(American, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish). New York: Theatre Arts
Books, 1959.
Consolidated Basic Hindi Vocabulary (Classes I to VIII)/Compiled by Uday Shankar and Jai
Narain Kaushin. New Delhi: National, 1982.

9.1.1 Uses of Dictionaries

The common use of dictionaries are – these are usually used a quick reference tool, a language
standardiser, a language recorder and a vocabulary builder. Bilingual and multilingual
dictionaries facilitate in translation work.

Did u know? Subject dictionaries which include words, phrases, expressions, and technical
terms of a particular subject, act as good sources of information for the translation for the
translators and subject experts.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Dictionary is the most widely known and used .............................. book.

2. The word ‘dictionary’ is derived from the medieval Latin word ‘.......................................’ a
collection of words.

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