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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θɪˈsɔːɹəs/
• Rhymes: -ɔːɹəs

Noun

thesaurus (plural thesauri or thesauruses)

1. A publication, usually in the form of a book, that provides synonyms (and sometimes antonyms) for the words of a given language.

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

2. (archaic) A dictionary or encyclopedia.
3. (information science) A hierarchy of subject headings — canonic titles of themes and topics, the titles serving as search keys.

Synonyms

• synonymicon

Derived terms

• metathesaurus
• thesaural

Translations

book of synonyms

• Armenian: հոմանիշների բառարան (homanišneri baṙaran), թեզաուրուս (hy) (tʻezaurus) (rare), հոմանիշարան (homanišaran) (rare)
• Catalan: diccionari de sinònims
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分類詞詞典／分类词词典, 分类词词典 (fēnlèicí cídiǎn)

• Czech: tezaurus m
• Danish: begrebsordbog c, saggruppeordbog c, tesaurus, synonymordbog c
• Dutch: thesaurus (nl) m, synoniemenboek n
• 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
• Hungarian: szinonimaszótár (hu), tézaurusz, tematikus szókincstár
• Icelandic: hugtakaorðabók
• Ido: tezauro
• Indonesian: tesaurus (id)
• Italian: dizionario dei sinonimi, tesoro (it) m
• Japanese: シソーラス (ja) (shisōrasu), 類語辞典 (ruigo jiten)
• Khmer: កម្រងវេវចនៈសព្ទ (kamrɔɔng veivea’ca’na’ sap)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: теза́урус m (tezáurus), синони́мен речник m (sinonímen rečnik)
• Malay: tesaurus (ms)
• Maori: puna kupu taurite, punakupu
• Norwegian: begrepsordbok, begrepsklasseordbok, omgrepsordbok, omgrepsklasseordbok, tesaurus, synonymordbok m or f
• Occitan: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: tezaurus (pl) m inan
• 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) (tezáurus), слова́рь сино́нимов (slovárʹ sinónimov)
• Scottish Gaelic: co-fhaclair m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: речник синонима m, тезаурус m

  Roman: rečnik sinonima m, tezaurus (sh) m

• Slovak: tezaurus m
• Spanish: diccionario de sinónimos m
• Swedish: begreppsordbok c, begreppsklassordbok, tesaurus (sv) c, synonymordbok (sv) c
• Tagalog: talasimpanan
• Thai: อรรถาภิธาน (th) (àt-tǎa-pí-taan)
• Turkish: sözlük (tr)
• Welsh: thesawrws (cy)

information science: hierarchy of titles

• Catalan: tesaurus (ca) m
• Czech: tezaurus m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: käsitesanakirja, tesaurus (fi)
• Russian: предме́тный указа́тель (predmétnyj ukazátelʹ)

See also

• ontology
• Wiktionary's thesaurus
• Appendix:Roget's thesaurus classification

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.
• Roget's Thesaurus can be found at: https://web.archive.org/web/20051125170203/http://www.bartleby.com/thesauri/

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Latin

Alternative forms

• thēnsaurus

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.

Case	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

• Catalan: tesaurus, tresor
• → English: thesaurus, treasure
• French: thésaurus, trésor
• Italian: tesauro, tesoro

• Portuguese: tesauro, tesouro, tesoiro
• Romanian: tezaur
• Spanish: tesauro, tesoro

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

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Portuguese

Noun

thesaurus m (plural thesauri or thesaurus)

1. thesaurus (dictionary of synonyms)

Synonyms

• dicionário de sinônimos, tesauro