Mr Winchester doth protest too much. Whether or not the word lists in Roget's are absolute synonyms or not is largely irrelevant to most users; like Bridget they most often wish to remind themselves of a word with a similar meaning.

Even Mr Winchester admits that Roget wasn't looking for perfection. He was merely classifying (like, as Winchester suggests, Linnaeus). Classification is only a second order judgement. Even given that, whatever his motives were at the time and however flawed the actual product was, it has survived the test of time. People still buy it and (presumably) use it.

To blame it for a diminution of the quality of the use of language is like Cnut blaming the width of his chair legs for his failure to stem the tide at his royal command. The reasons for the general decline in linguistic standards lie firmly elsewhere! Personally, I'd start with the public school systems in most countries, myself.

I never use a thesaurus for assistance with writing. I have a copy of Roget's on my bookshelf but others peruse it mostly. I originally purchased it to help with crosswords ...

Incidentally, I thought The Professor and The Madman was one of the most disconnected books I have read for some time, even though the subject matter itself was very interesting!


The idiot also known as Capfka ...