Thesaurus
Besides frequently consulting a good modern dictionary a student speaker should familiarize himself with a Thesaurus of words and phrases. This is a peculiarly useful compilation of expressions according to their meaning relations. A dictionary lists words, then gives their meanings. A Thesaurus arranges meanings, then gives the words that express those ideas. The value of such a book can be best illustrated by explaining its use.
Suppose a speaker is going to attack some principle, some act, some party. He knows that his main theme will be denunciation of something. In the index of a Thesaurus he looks under denunciation, finding two numbers of paragraphs. Turning to the first he has under his eye a group of words all expressing shades of this idea. There are further references to other related terms. Let us look at the first group, taken from Roget's Thesaurus.
MALEDICTON, curse, imprecation, denunciation, execration, anathema, ban, proscription, excommunication, commination, fulmination.
Cursing, scolding, railing, Billingsgate language.
V. To curse, accurse, imprecate, scold, rail, execrate.
To denounce, proscribe, excommunicate, fulminate.
Adj. Cursing, &c., cursed, &c.
THREAT, menace, defiance, abuse, commination, intimidation.
V. To threaten, menace, defy, fulminate; to intimidate.
Adj. Threatening, menacing, minatory, abusive.
The second reference leads us farther. It presents the expressions dealing with the methods and results of denunciation, providing hundreds of words and phrases to use in various ways. It does even more, for in a parallel column it gives a list of opposites for the words indicating condemnation. This more than doubles its value. Finally having reached the word punishment it lists its cognates until the idea penalty is reached, where it balances that idea with reward and its synonyms. A portion of this section follows.
LAWSUIT, suit, action, cause, trial, litigation.
Denunciation, citation, arraignment, persecution, indictment, impeachment, apprehension, arrest, committal, imprisonment.
Pleadings, writ, summons, plea, bill, affidavit, &c.
Verdict, sentence, judgment, finding, decree, arbitrament, adjudication, award.
V. To go to law; to take the law of; to appeal to the law; to join issue; file a bill, file a claim.
To denounce, cite, apprehend, arraign, sue, prosecute, bring to trial, indict, attach, distrain, to commit, give in charge or custody; throw into prison.
To try, hear a cause, sit in judgment.
To pronounce, find, judge, sentence, give judgment; bring in a verdict; doom, to arbitrate, adjudicate, award, report.
ACQUITTAL, absolution, see Pardon, 918, clearance, discharge, release, reprieve, respite.
Exemption from punishment; impunity.
V. To acquit, absolve, clear, discharge, release, reprieve, respite.
Adj. Acquitted, &c.
Uncondemned, unpunished, unchastised.
CONDEMNATION, conviction, proscription; death warrant.
Attainder, attainment.
V. To condemn, convict, cast, find guilty, proscribe.
Adj. Condemnatory, &c.
PUNISHMENT, chastisement, castigation, correction, chastening, discipline, infliction, etc.
An observer will see at once just how far these lists go and what must supplement them. They do not define, they do not discriminate, they do not restrict. They are miscellaneous collections. A person must consult the dictionary or refer to some other authority to prevent error or embarrassment in use. For instance, under the entry newspaper occurs the attractive word ephemeris. But one should be careful of how and where he uses that word.
Another exercise which will aid in fixing both words and meanings in the mind and also help in the power of recalling them for instant use is to make some kind of word-list according to some principle or scheme.
One plan might be to collect all the words dealing with the idea of book. Another might be to take some obvious word root and then follow it and other roots added to it through all its forms, meanings, and uses. One might choose tel (distant) and graph (record) and start with telegraph. Telephone will introduce phone, phonograph; they will lead on to dictaphone, dictagraph; the first half links with dictation; that may lead as far away as dictatorial. In fact there is no limit to the extent, the interest, and the value of these various exercises.
"Consistent, persistent, insistent word-study is of inestimable value to a speaker."
The single aim of all of them should be, of course, the enlargement of the speaking vocabulary. Mere curiosities, current slang, far-fetched metaphors, passing foreign phrases, archaisms, obsolete and obsolescent terms, too new coinages, atrocities, should be avoided as a plague.
Consistent, persistent, insistent word-study is of inestimable value to a speaker. And since all people speak, it follows that it would benefit everybody.