Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Thesaurus's

This is topic Thesaurus's in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by benskia (Member # 2422) on :

Hello.
Phew, what a relief that Thesaurus's are available electronically - on the web / in word processes.

I'm always stuck for the right word for things & it would take me ages to rack my grey matter for the one I'm after.

I often know the word I want & can get there by a few searches in a thesaurus. Or even find a replacement for a word that i've used too often already.

How often do you guys revert to them.

Posted by RFLong (Member # 1923) on :

Pretty much every time I sit down to edit. The Thesaurus and the Dictionary live beside the computer in our house (hardcopy ones, obviously). The only problem is when that pesky crossword doer runs away with them

They're invaluable.

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

I pull it out whenever I notice I'm using a word too often in a story.

I try not to rely on it too much, though, or I find myself choosing a word just because it's rarely used.

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

I don't think I've ever used one. But I read so much that I have a pretty large vocabulary. I don't mean to say that a thesaurus is worthless, just that to date I haven't felt the need for one. In future, maybe I'll use one more, though I doubt it.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

Am I the only one who cringes from the misplaced apostrophe in this section title? Plural form never uses an apostrophe.

I often use a thesaurus to double check my meaning. Every once in a while I use a word for which I have a pre-conceived concept, only to discover the actual word meaning leans in a slightly different direction than I intended. My other use is to simplfy my writing. I have a tendency to be verbose, and I run the thesaurus check to remind myself of more common meanings that don't raise the "fog index" of my writing. Once of the things I admire most about OSC's writing is his ability to convey complex stories using common language. There is a point where high-fallutin' language becomes a barrier, and I am working on simplifying my work.

Edited for simplicity.

[This message has been edited by Elan (edited April 07, 2005).]

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

I, too, noticed the extra s after the apostraphe.

I use the tesaurus often, but not everytime I sit down. It's not that I don't have a large vocabulary, it's more than I don't have an instant recall of it all the time and for some reason, this seems to be getting worse as the years progress. (I would call it age but I"m only 27....) Anyway, I start wiht a similiar word in the thesaurus and often find it. I also use it to check meaning because MS Word's thesaurus tool is closer than the nearest dictionary, even the on-line ones.

And sometimes I'm just getting bored with a word and use it as a thesaurus, to find a better word with the same meaning. I use it this way sparingly. I never intend to sound like I thumbed through a thesaurus.

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

I'm with you on the apostrophe, elan! (but plurals do take apostrophes sometimes - the plural of the letter A is A's, for example.)

I almost never use a thesaurus. Sometimes I browse through one just kind of for fun.

Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :

Actually I think the problem came from the fact that 'thesaurus' which is singular, already ends in 's' and benskia wasn't aware of how to pluralize it. For future reference, the plural is 'thesaurii.'

Posted by JBSkaggs (Member # 2265) on :

Would multiple thesaurus-es be thesauri?

Posted by JBSkaggs (Member # 2265) on :

The problem with English is so much of it is not English but some foreign word assimilated and bastardized from it's original form.

Posted by Beth (Member # 2192) on :

surely you mean "its original form."

sorry, couldn't help it. "it's" is a contraction of "it is". no exceptions. "its" is more parallel to "his" or "hers," which do not take an apostrophe.

[This message has been edited by Beth (edited April 07, 2005).]

Posted by benskia (Member # 2422) on :

Ahhh. Sorry, I forgot to mention.
I have this mate called Thesaurus you see, and I borrow his thesaurus when I'm searching for words.

(did i get away with it?)

By the way. Here's some cheeky upstarts quips for you guys who were picking on me...

Elan, you said:
I often use a thesaurus to double check my meaning.
I have a suggestion for you - buy a dictionary. You might find it better suited.

Christine who uses the tesaurus often - what's one of those? A rare breed of dinosaur?

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

Actually, both thesauri and thesauruses are correct.

Either way, thesaurus' (which I thought it was) and thesaurus's are definitely wrong.

Posted by JBSkaggs (Member # 2265) on :

LOL

Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :

A tesaurus is what happens when you don't proofread carefully before hitting send. It's kind of a cross between an oops and a doh!

Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :

Isn't "tesaurus" a related form of teseract? I believe it is the point in which space folds between the beginning and end of a word.

Posted by RFLong (Member # 1923) on :

I thought that was knowing how to start spelling a word but not when to stop

bananananananana

(Apologies to T Pratchett Esq)

Or is that the inverse?

Posted by dpatridge (Member # 2208) on :

forget tesauruses, i'm still wondering what a thesauraus is

seriously, i basically never use a thesaurus... i use the one that's up in my cranium. if i don't know a word without looking it up, it shouldn't be in my writing.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

Benskia said:

quote:
I have a suggestion for (Elan) - buy a dictionary. You might find it better suited.

I HAVE a dictionary. Two of them, plus one each in French, Spanish, and Russian. However, that would require a focused effort to flip through the pages trying to find the word while squinting at the tiny print (or spending half an hour searching for my reading glasses which I don't use with the computer). In short, I find the word processing thesaurus a much quicker check.

Posted by Mr_Megalomaniac (Member # 2478) on :

I don't use Thesuru... *cough* much. I do have a tendency to use dictionary.com many times though. Sometimes for spelling and other times because I've been reading OSC's essays recently and the like, and his vocabulary dwarfs mine.

If you guys talk about grammar so much, within a year, I might go from sucking at grammar to only slightly sucking at grammar. W00t!

edit
spelling change

[This message has been edited by Mr_Megalomaniac (edited April 10, 2005).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Speaking of dictionaries (I know, not exactly on topic), does anyone know if there is a "dictionary" on the web that can take a word from an unknown language and identify the language (I know what the word means, just not what language it's in)?

I suspect this would be some kind of "universal translator" search engine.

If anyone knows of such, it would be useful to me, but it might also be useful to anyone who wants to use a made-up name for a character and be sure that it didn't turn out to mean something embarrassing in some unknown language.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

The closest thing I know of to a Universal Translator, Scotty, is Babelfish at:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

It's by no means infallible, but it's pretty darned handy at times.

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

Kathleen,

What's the word, first. And second, have you tried searching on it via google or other search engine? That might help determine its origin.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Thanks, Elan. They don't have a very large list of possible languages on Babelfish, at least not so far as I could tell.

HSO, the word is "murakoza" and it means "thank you." The language is from Africa--Rwanda, I think, and I want to know what we call the language so I can find more words in it.

I haven't tried Google. I guess it would be interesting to see what comes up if I do.

Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :

A quick search reveals that the language might be: Kinyarwanda or Kirundi

One link:

encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Rwanda language

Hope you sort it out. Good luck.

... and sorry, don't know any translators.

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Thanks, HSO.

I checked Google but didn't find any Rwanda language dictionaries. I'll try that link out. (And I'll delete your second post.)