Historical Thesaurus of English

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Historical Thesaurus of English

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1PossMan
Jan 17, 2015, 7:52 am

Glasgow University have put online an excellent resource which lovers of dictionary type tomes may like to hear about.
http://historicalthesaurus.arts.gla.ac.uk/
The print edition was published in 2009 by OUP and was called "Historical Theaurus of the OED" in 2 volumes. Cost was over £200 when I bought it and it really is a tremendous resource. But apart from the price it's really quite cumbersome to use especially for words which have a range of meanings. You have to look them up in the index (vol 2) which then refers you to several (or many) entries in vol 1 under different semantic fields. The online version is a real joy and pleasure to use — muc, much, easier. There are links from the results to the OED entry but this bit is not free. You need an OED sub or library card number. Hint: Although I live in Scotland I joined Lancashire County Library online and use the number from the card they sent me. And through their site you can also go to OED directly.

2LesMiserables
Jan 23, 2015, 10:08 pm

I want (not need) this.

3boldface
Jan 23, 2015, 10:34 pm

>1 PossMan:

I have the print version as well and I agree that it is quite laborious to follow all the entries of a complex word. I've now bookmarked your link. Thanks.

>2 LesMiserables:

You'll love it!

4LesMiserables
Jan 23, 2015, 10:41 pm

1,3

I do enjoy great big cumbersome books!