Definition of thesaurus - What it is, Meaning and Concept

Thesaurus is a notion that comes from the Latin word thesaurus , although its farthest etymological origin is in the Greek.The concept refers to a treasure , considering its meaning as a anthology , a catalog or a indice.

A thesaurus can be a list that presents the terms that are used for the representation of certain contents .Its purpose is to contribute to the normalization of the terms; in this way, comprehension and communication are facilitated.

Thesauri, in this sense, contribute to the construction of the link between people and the files or the libraries.The terms of the thesaurus can be linked together in an associative, equivalent or hierarchical way.

In this way, in the thesauri you can find a list of the preferred terms (arranged in a hierarchical, thematic and alphabetical way), a list of descriptors (synonymous with the preferred terms), the relationships between these terms and, finally, the definitions of these terms.In addition the thesauri usually include the rules for use.

In the field of literature , the thesaurus usually takes the form of a list of terms whose meanings are similar.In addition, the antonyms of these terms are presented.Thesauri, in these cases, usually focus on certain fields of knowledge.

An example of this concept can be seen in the UNESCO Thesaurus .It includes the terms that should be used to search for publications and documents and to carry out thematic analysis.This thesaurus contains thousands of terms in different languages ​​, including Spanish.

We can also understand the term thesaurus as a synonym for dictionary , something that happens with the work of the Spanish scholar Sebastian de Covarrubias " Treasure of the Spanish or Spanish language ", which was published in the year 1611.It is curious that at present this book represents an authentic treasure in more ways than one, since it is the first monolingual dictionary of our language, that is, one had never been edited before in the which the definitions will also be presented in Spanish.On the other hand, it was also the first European dictionary focused on a vulgar language (or popular , which was spoken at that time).

The central idea of ​​Covarrubias was to create a dictionary of etymology that delved into the origin of the words of our language , and was based on the Etymologies by Isidoro de Sevilla, a work that focused on Latin.As with the latter, Covarrubias started from the idea that the f The form of a word is related to its original meaning, which is why, in order to find it, it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation of its etymology .Unfortunately, the author fears not completing his thesaurus, given his age at the beginning of the project, so he decided to reduce the extent of the vast majority of the articles.

Consulting a thesaurus is a truly fascinating activity, especially for language lovers, although it invites anyone to immerse themselves in the depths of knowledge in a pleasant and surprising way.The aim of this type of work is to help the reader to express your ideas better through the suggestion of related synonyms or terms in a more dynamic and easy way to navigate than a common dictionary.

Within a printed thesaurus we can find more than one section: for example, in one the terms can be arranged alphabetically, while in another they can be presented grouped by themes .In the case of the thesauri interactive digital, there are very attractive and dynamic designs that allow us to navigate the vast network of terms with simple mouse movements.