OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES, CLASSIFIED AND ARRANGED SO AS TO FACILITATE THE EXPRESSION OF IDEAS AND ASSIST IN LITERARY COMPOSITION. BY PETER MARK ROGET, M.D., F.R.S. FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE SENATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ; OF THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES ETC. OF MANCHESTER, LIVERPOOL, Author of THE "BRIDGEWATER TREATISE ON ANIMAL AND vegetable pHYSIOLOGY," ETC. "It is impossible we should thoroughly understand the nature of the SIGNS, unless we FIFTH EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, & ROBERTS. 302. b. 18. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. Ir is now nearly fifty years since I first projected a system of verbal classification similar to that on which the present Work is founded. Conceiving that such a compilation might help to supply my own deficiencies, I had, in the year 1805, completed a classed catalogue of words on a small scale, but on the same principle, and nearly in the same form, as the Thesaurus now published. I had often, during that long interval, found this little collection, scanty and imperfect as it was, of much use to me in literary composition, and often contemplated its extension and improvement; but a sense of the magnitude of the task, amidst a multitude of other avocations, deterred me from the attempt. Since my retirement from the duties of Secretary of the Royal Society, however, finding myself possessed of more leisure, and believing that a repertory of which I had myself experienced the advantage, might, when amplified, prove useful to others, I resolved to embark in an undertaking, which, for the last three or four years, has given me incessant occupation, and has, indeed, imposed upon me an amount of labour very much greater than I had anticipated. Notwithstanding all the pains I have bestowed on its execution, I am fully aware of its numerous deficiencies and imperfections, and of its falling far short of the degree of excellence that might be attained. But, in a Work of this nature, where perfection is placed at so great a distance, I have thought it best to limit my ambition to that moderate share of merit which it may claim in its present form; trusting to the indulgence of those for whose benefit it is intended, and to the candour of critics, who, while they find it easy to detect faults, can, at the same time, duly appreciate difficulties. 18. Upper Bedford Place, London. April 29th, 1852. P. M. ROGET. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE increasing demand for this Work, as shown by the rapid sale of the last Edition, has encouraged me to devote considerable time and labour to its further extension and improvement. It has, accordingly, been enriched by the insertion of many thousand expressions not contained in any of the former editions; a better arrangement, in various places, both of words and phrases, has been adopted; and the volume has been printed in a more portable and convenient form. As it has now been stereotyped, I intend, for the accommodation of purchasers, to print, from time to time, supplements containing such additional expressions as I may discover to be still wanting to render the collection complete. In the course of last summer, an imperfect edition of this work was published at Boston, in the United States of America, in which the editor, among other mutilations, has altogether omitted the Phrases, which constitute an important part of the original; and has removed from the body of the Work all words and expressions borrowed from a foreign language, throwing them into an Appendix, where, being placed in alphabetical order, they are completely lost to the inquirer who is in search of terms expressive of his ideas, and for whose use the work is specially designed. January 18th, 1855. P. M. R. INTRODUCTION. THE present Work is intended to supply, with respect to the English language, a desideratum hitherto unsupplied in any language; namely, a collection of the words it contains and of the idiomatic combinations peculiar to it, arranged, not in alphabetical order as they are in a Dictionary, but according to the ideas which they express. The purpose of an ordinary dictionary is simply to explain the meaning of words; and the problem of which it professes to furnish the solution may be stated thus:The word being given, to find its signification, or the idea it is intended to convey. The object aimed at in the present undertaking is exactly the converse of this: namely, -The idea being given, to find the word, or words, by which that idea may be most fitly and aptly expressed. For this purpose, the words and phrases of the language are here classed, not according to their sound or their orthography, but strictly according to their signification. The communication of our thoughts by means of language, whether spoken or written, like every other object of mental exertion, constitutes a peculiar art, which, like other arts, cannot be acquired in any perfection but by long and continued practice. Some, indeed, there are more highly gifted than others with a facility of expression, and naturally endowed with the power of eloquence; but to none is it at all times an easy process to embody, in exact and appropriate language, the various trains of ideas that are passing through the mind, or to depict in their true colours and proportions, the diversified and nicer shades of feeling which accompany them. To those who are unpractised in *See Note, in p. xxi. |