thesaurus

See also: Thesaurus and thésaurus

English

Etymology

16th century, from Latin thēsaurus, from Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”); its current English usage/meaning was established soon after the publication of Peter Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases in 1852. Doublet of treasure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɪˈsɔːɹəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəs

Noun

thesaurus (plural thesauri or thesauruses)

2. A publication that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms and other semantic relations) for the words of a given language.

   Synonym: synonymicon

   "Roget" is the leading brand name for a print English thesaurus that lists words under general concepts rather than just close synonyms.

   • 2008 April 18, Charles Mcgrath, “The Keeper (See: Steward, Caretaker) of Synonyms”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     As reference books go, the thesaurus has had a somewhat checkered history, in fact, and has probably occasioned as much bad writing as good.

4. (archaic) A dictionary or encyclopedia.
6. (information science) A hierarchy of subject headings: canonical titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

   Coordinate terms: catalogue, controlled vocabulary, index

Derived terms

• metathesaurus
• thesaural
• thesauruslike

 

Translations

book of synonyms

• Arabic: مَكْنَز m (maknaz)
• Armenian: հոմանիշների բառարան (homanišneri baṙaran), թեզաուրուս (hy) (tʻezaurus) (rare), հոմանիշարան (homanišaran) (rare)
• Bulgarian: синони́мен ре́чник m (sinonímen réčnik)
• Catalan: diccionari de sinònims
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 同義詞詞典／同义词词典 (tóngyìcí cídiǎn)

• Czech: tezaurus m
• Danish: begrebsordbog c, saggruppeordbog c, tesaurus, synonymordbog c
• Dutch: thesaurus (nl) m, synoniemenboek n
• Dzongkha: མངོན་བརྗོད (mngon brjod)
• Esperanto: sinonimaro, tezaŭro (eo),
• Faroese: samheitabók f
• Finnish: synonyymisanakirja (fi), käsitesanakirja
• French: dictionnaire des synonymes (fr), thésaurus (fr) m, dictionnaire de notions, dictionnaire par ordre de matières
• Galician: dicionario de sinónimos m
• Georgian: თეზაურუსი (tezaurusi), სინონიმების ლექსიკონი (sinonimebis leksiḳoni)
• German: Thesaurus (de) m, Begriffswörterbuch n, Sachgruppenwörterbuch n, Synonymwörterbuch (de) n
• Greek: θησαυρός (el) m (thisavrós)
• Hebrew: אֶגְרוֹן (he) m (egrón)
• Hindi: पर्यायकोश m (paryāyakoś), प्रतिशब्दकोश m (pratiśabdakoś), शब्दकोश (hi) m (śabdakoś)
• Hungarian: szinonimaszótár (hu), tézaurusz, tematikus szókincstár
• Icelandic: hugtakaorðabók f
• Ido: tezauro
• Indonesian: tesaurus (id)
• Irish: stórchiste m
• Italian: dizionario dei sinonimi, tesoro (it) m
• Japanese: シソーラス (ja) (shisōrasu), 類語辞典 (るいごじ​てん, ruigo jiten)
• Khmer: កំរងវេវចនៈសព្ទ (kɑmrɑɑng veevĕəʼcaʼnaʼ sap)
• Korean: 유의어 사전(類義語辭典) (yuuieo sajeon)
• Latvian: tēzaurs m
• Lithuanian: tezauras m, sinonimų žodynas m
• Macedonian: тезаурус m (tezaurus), синони́мен речник m (sinonímen rečnik)
• Malay: tesaurus (ms)
• Maori: puna kupu taurite, punakupu
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: begrepsordbok m or f, begrepsklasseordbok m or f, omgrepsordbok m or f, omgrepsklasseordbok m or f, tesaurus, synonymordbok m or f

• Occitan: diccionari (oc) m
• Polish: tezaurus (pl) m inan, słownik wyrazów bliskoznacznych m, słownik synonimów m
• Portuguese: dicionário de sinónimos m (Portugal), dicionário de sinônimos m (Brazil), tesauro (pt) m, thesaurus (pt) m
• Romanian: dicționar de sinonime n
• Russian: теза́урус (ru) m (tɛzáurus), слова́рь сино́нимов m (slovárʹ sinónimov)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-fhaclair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: речник синонима m, теза̀урус m

  Roman: rečnik sinonima m, tezàurus (sh) m

• Sinhalese: සමාන පද නාමාවලිය (samāna pada nāmāwaliya)
• Slovak: tezaurus m
• Spanish: diccionario de sinónimos m, tesoro (es) m
• Swedish: begreppsordbok (sv) c, begreppsklassordbok, tesaurus (sv) c, synonymordbok (sv) c
• Tagalog: talasimpanan
• Thai: อรรถาภิธาน (th) (àt-tǎa-pí-taan)
• Turkish: eşanlamlılar sözlüğü, tesarus
• Welsh: thesawrws (cy)

information science: hierarchy of titles

• Catalan: tesaurus (ca) m
• Czech: tezaurus m
• Finnish: käsitesanakirja, tesaurus (fi)
• Russian: предме́тный указа́тель m (predmétnyj ukazátelʹ)

See also

• ontology
• Wiktionary's thesaurus
• Appendix:Roget's thesaurus classification
• Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus
• Appendix:Moby Thesaurus II

Further reading

• “thesaurus”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “thesaurus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• OneLook Thesaurus in OneLook, 2023

Latin

Alternative forms

• thensaurus (pre-Classical)
• tēsaurus, tēsōrus (Low Latin)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek θησαυρός (thēsaurós, “storehouse, treasure”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /tʰeːˈsau̯.rus/, [t̪ʰeːˈs̠äu̯rʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /teˈsau̯.rus/, [t̪eˈs̬äːu̯rus]

Noun

thēsaurus m (genitive thēsaurī); second declension

1. treasure, hoard
   • Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Danihelis 1:2:

     […] et vasa intulit in domum thesauri dei sui

     " […] and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god."

2. a dear friend, loved one
3. a vault for treasure
4. chest, strongbox
5. repository, collection

Declension

Second-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	thēsaurus	thēsaurī
genitive	thēsaurī	thēsaurōrum
dative	thēsaurō	thēsaurīs
accusative	thēsaurum	thēsaurōs
ablative	thēsaurō	thēsaurīs
vocative	thēsaure	thēsaurī

Derived terms

• thēsaurārius
• thēsaurensis
• thēsaurizātor
• thēsaurizō

Descendants

• → Albanian: thesar
• Catalan: tresor, → tesaurus
• → English: thesaurus
  • → Welsh: thesawrws
• → French: thésaurus
• → German: Thesaurus
• Italian: tesauro, tesoro
• Old French: tresor
  • Middle French: thresor
    • French: trésor
  • Walloon: trezôr
  • → Middle English: tresour
    • English: treasure
    • Scots: treisur
  • → Esperanto: trezoro
  • → German: Tresor
    • → Czech: trezor
    • → Serbo-Croatian: trèzōr/трѐзо̄р
  • → Ido: trezoro
  • → Ladino: trezoro
  • → Occitan: tresaur
  • → Welsh: trysor
• Old Galician-Portuguese: tesouro
  • Galician: tesouro
  • Portuguese: tesouro, tesoiro
• Piedmontese: tesòr
• → Portuguese: tesauro
• Romanian: tezaur
• Spanish: tesoro, → tesauro

References

• “thesaurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “thesaurus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• thesaurus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• thesaurus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “thesaurus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “thesaurus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin thesaurus.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /teˈzaw.ɾus/ [teˈzaʊ̯.ɾus]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /teˈzaw.ɾus/ [teˈzaʊ̯.ɾus]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /teˈzaw.ɾuʃ/ [teˈzaʊ̯.ɾuʃ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /tɨˈzaw.ɾuʃ/

Noun

thesaurus m (plural thesauri or thesaurus)

1. Alternative form of tesauro