Abbey's Bookshop - Historical Thesaurus

"The Thesaurus will be of immense value to all kinds of people - from scholars exploring stylistic and pragmatic choices in authors such as Shakespeare to writers wanting lexical authenticity for the conversations in their novels and plays. As I read through the entries you sent, it is difficult to take it all in. Every line generates fresh insights. It is at once awe-inspiring, humbling, motivating, moving. It actually made me gasp with amazement - and I mean out loud - several times, and I can't recall lexicology doing that to me before!"

-David Crystal

More than 40 years in the making.

Almost 4,000 pages.

Almost 800,000 meanings organised into more than 236,000 categories and subcategories.

The largest thesaurus in the world and the first historical thesaurus in any language.

The perfect companion to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Available in November at the introductory price of $550

Click here to order now!

"Surely one of the most extraordinary books of reference ever compiled." -Sir Roy Strong

"I can hardly imagine any reference book more valuable for the historical novelist: here is the information we had to spend hours hunting down through the thickets and coverts of the great OED, shot, stuffed, and mounted for us. But quite apart from its usefulness, I congratulate OUP on producing what will be the greatest and most enjoyable work-deferring device since the invention of computer Solitaire."-Philip Pullman

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (HTOED) is a unique new resource charting the semantic development of the huge and varied vocabulary of English. It is the first comprehensive historical thesaurus ever produced for any language, containing almost every word in English from Old English to the present day, and is a magnificent resource for the historical study of the language. It is based on a detailed analysis of English as found in the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and also draws on A Thesaurus of Old English. Conceived and compiled by the English Language Department of the University of Glasgow over a period of some 45 years, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is a groundbreaking analysis of meaning in the history of English.

The thesaurus organization follows a unique thematic system of classification, with entries arranged in a comprehensive semantic hierarchy according to their meanings. Each individual synonym is presented in chronological order according to the first recorded date of the word's use in English as listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, with earliest synonyms given first. There are three major sections in the HTOED, reflecting the main activities and preoccupations of users of the language: I The external world II The mental world III The social world These in turn are divided into 354 major categories, such as Food and drink, Thought, or War. Further categories and subcategories follow, moving from the most general ideas to the most specific. Overall, the HTOED contains around 800,000 meanings, organized into more than 236,000 categories and subcategories. The semantic categories and subcategories are headed by phrases which define them and link to preceding sections. In this abridged example, the headings and numbering show that Terms of endearment, at the fourth level of the semantic hierarchy, are part of Love, which is classified within the higher category of Emotion, which in turn comes under The mind. 02 The mind ...02.02 Emotion ...02.02.22 Love ...02.02.22.04 Terms of endearment ...

The HTOED contains obsolete, historical, and archaic vocabulary, as well as the vocabulary of current English; it covers scientific, technical, and specialist terminology as well as slang, dialect, and informal language, and regional varieties of English from all parts of the world. Each term is precisely entered into its place in this comprehensive hierarchy of meaning, according to its meaning and date, and is accessible either by browsing at any level of the hierarchy, or by looking up a particular word in its alphabetical place via the Index. The Index itself lists nearly one million references and ensures a comprehensive lookup and accessibility of the full text. The final printed work is presented in two volumes: Volume 1 is the Thesaurus, while Volume 2 is the alphabetical Index listing the synonyms in Volume 1. Readers may thus approach the content of the Thesaurus in different ways: either by looking up a single lexical item in the Index and being directed to the appropriate section in the main Thesaurus, or by browsing by semantic category directly, and seeing words in their context of both historical development and the overall organization of meaning. There is an Introductory essay by the Editors and a Foreword written by Lord Randolph Quirk, together with a specially commissioned fold-out chart showing the principal levels of the semantic classification. The HTOED is a unique resource for scholars of all types - linguists and language specialists, historians, literary commentators, etc. - as well as being a fascinating resource for everyone with an interest in the English language and its historical development. It is the ideal complement to the OED itself, allowing the OED to be accessed and its contents viewed in wholly new ways.

Like any large and ambitious project, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (HTOED) has a long and varied history. In 1965 Michael Samuels, then Professor of English Language at the University of Glasgow, gave a lecture to the Philological Society in which he announced that his department was embarking on a project to create a historical thesaurus of English. The proposal was based on a thorough analysis of the sense inventory of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and the intention was that the work would be carried out by staff and students at Glasgow University. Work started soon after and over the following years the project grew in momentum and continued under the dedicated leadership of the University's project team, passing in time to Professor Christian Kay to guide it through the later and final stages. From the late 1970s onwards, as data collection proceeded, the team focused increasingly on the immense task of devising a new system of classification which would do justice to such a huge amount of material. Such a system had to be flexible enough to accommodate changes in the vocabulary over the years and the cultural changes they reflected, which led to similarities but also important differences when compared to other less comprehensive and less detailed thesaurus classifications. Compiling the HTOED was a huge undertaking, and a huge challenge, with material continually being revised and reclassified as the project progressed. But finally in July 2008, after more than 40 years' work, and many, many person-hours of dedication and hard work, the last entry was slotted into place, and the work of producing the print publication could begin.

Find out more about this unique publication:

Sample page

Questions and answers about the project