18 January: National Thesaurus Day

Today is National Thesaurus Day, commemorating the birth in 1779 of Peter Mark Roget, doctor and lexicographer, who produced his Thesaurus in 1852 after 47 years’ work. 

1. The first modern Thesaurus was written by a British doctor named Peter Mark Roget, who was born on 18 January 1779, which is why this date was chosen as National Thesaurus Day. He started compiling lists of words and grouping them according to meaning when he was about 35, but didn't publish them until 1852, after he'd retired as a doctor. He called it by the snappy title of Thesaurus of English words and phrases; so classified and arranged as to facilitate the expression of ideas and assist in literary composition.
2. Roget's original thesaurus contained 15,000 words, but each new edition has been larger as new words are added, but the classifications stay faithful to those Roget established.
3. The first thesaurus was compiled in the late 1st century, in Greek, by Philo of Byblos. He called his work On Synonyms. Sadly, no copies of it have survived.
4. The oldest Thesaurus which still exists originated in India. In the 4th century, Amara Sinha wrote a thesaurus of Sanskrit words in the form of a poem, and called it The Amarakosha. It was written in verse to help people memorise the words.
5. The word Thesaurus derives from the Greek word theasuros, which means a treasure store.
6. If you have more than one of them, should you refer to your collection as thesauri or thesauruses? Technically, it should be thesauri, but either is acceptable these days.
7. Peter Mark Roget wasn't just interested in words - he also invented the log-log slide rule. He was an avid Chess player, too, and solved a tricky chess problem called the knight's tour problem - how to move the knight so it visits every square on a chessboard; and invented a pocket chessboard. Don't get him started on phrenology, though (measuring bumps on the skull and linking them to personality traits) because he once worte a two volume book denouncing it.
8. There is an artist in America who turns the thesaurus into art by painting lists of English and Yiddish synonyms onto canvas. His works include lists of expressions meaning "crazy" and "die".
9. Roget's Thesaurus may be the best known book of its type but there are others. The Oxford English dictionary produced one in two volumes. Volume two is the index, and it's longer than the thesaurus itself. There's also a thesaurus of slang words.
10. JM Barrie once said that Captain Hook could not be wholly evil because he had a thesaurus in his cabin.

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During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

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