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| The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
A little while ago, I came
across the following statement, made by a professional journalist reporting in
the local media: ‘The crash took place…’
I won’t bore you with the
rest of the details. But, as I’m sure you’ll agree, a crash is an accident and
accidents ‘happen’, they don’t ‘take place’. Meetings, concerts, pre-planned events ‘take
place’.
This set me thinking about
the way in which most writers seek out alternative words and expressions to
prevent repetition and dullness and to enliven their work. The bulk of us turn
to the thesaurus, whether in book form or online. I use two different versions
most of the time: the excellent, short, but useful online program known as WordWeb,
which is a free to use application that can be downloaded and associated with
your word processor to check for definitions and alternatives for a large
number of words. Click here for a link to
the download website.
I prefer, however, the
much more comprehensive book, The Original Roget’s Thesaurus, in the 1987
edition, prepared by Betty Kirkpatrick. I have alternatives on my shelves:
Hartrampf’s Vocabulary Builder, the Oxford Compact Thesaurus, The Slang Thesaurus,
The New Nuttall Dictionary of English Synonyms and Antonyms, and A Dictionary
of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk.
The danger with the
thesaurus, of course, is rather akin to that posed by the ubiquitous
spellchecker on the PC: it depends for its effectiveness on a level of
understanding from the user. Spellcheck ‘their’, ‘there’, and ‘they’re’ and all
will pass the test with ease. Usage determines the correct spelling. With a
thesaurus, it’s essential that the user at least understands what the word
actually means.
An example, then.
I suspect the vast
majority of readers here will know the word, ‘wanton’. And I guess most would
recognise its use as an adjective in the following couple of sentences:
‘She dressed in a manner
suggestive of her wanton nature, advertising her readiness to serve any and
every man present.’
‘He pulled his partner
back to his feet and knocked him down again, before laying into him in wanton
violence as the poor wretch lay at his feet.’
Yes, I know; clichéd
examples but, bear with me: I wanted samples that gave context to the word in
question and in both these ‘wanton’ is easily defined by reference to its
usage.
If, however, you were to
use an unusual word without such contextual clues, it would be very easy to
employ a totally unsuitable alternative simply by consulting a thesaurus. I’ll
illustrate what I mean. First, lets’ see how the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
defines ‘wanton’:
Wanton: (SOED) Adj: Of a
person – undisciplined, ungoverned, unmanageable, rebellious, jovial, inclined
to joking, carefree, petulant, spoilt, self-indulgent, insolent in triumph or
prosperity, reckless, merciless (of a boy) childishly cruel or unruly. Of an
animal – skittish, refractory, unmanageable, frisky, frolicsome,.
Originally only of a woman
– thought, action etc: lustful, sexually promiscuous, flirtatious.
Of colour or music –
cheerful, lively
Of an object – moving
freely as if alive, unrestrained
Of wealth, clothing, diet,
a way of life – luxurious, extravagant,
Of cruelty or violence –
unprovoked, reckless, gratuitous
Of speech and imagination
– extravagant, impetuous, unrestrained
Fastidious or dainty in
appetite, profuse in growth, luxuriant.
I suspect there are more
meanings here than most readers expected. Some, of course, are now either rare
or generally used only in a literary or poetic sense. Nevertheless, the most
common usages of the word are buried amongst many other meanings. So, this is a
word for which the dictionary provides a number of different meanings, which
would only become apparent by context. Already, we have a recipe for potential
confusion.
If we now examine the
entries in The Original Roget’s Thesaurus for the same word, used as an
adjective, we find the following suggestions under their headings:
-changeful:
changing, mutable,
alterable, phased, changeable, shifting, vicissitudinous, varying, variant,
variable, nonuniform, kaleidoscopic, iridescent, protean, multiform,
quick-change, versatile, skilful, uncertain, unreliable, vacillating, wavering,
irresolute, moody, unpredictable, unaccountable, unexpected, never the same,
ever-changing, volatile, mercurial, different, wayward, fickle, whimsical,
capricious, giddy, dizzy, flighty, wanton,
irresponsible, frivolous, light-minded, shifty, inconstant, unfaithful,
disloyal, traitorous, tergiversating.
-capricious:
motiveless, purposeless,
whimsical, fanciful, fantastic, eccentric, humoursome, temperamental,
crotchety, maggoty, freakish, fitful, hysterical, mad, crazy, prankish, mischievous,
wanton, wayward, perverse, faddy
faddish, particular, fastidious, captious, arbitrary, unreasonable, fretful,
moody, contrary, irascible, undisciplined, refractory, wilful, erratic,
uncertain, unpredictable, unexpected, volatile, mercurial, skittish, giddy,
frivolous, light-minded, inconsistent, inconstant, variable, unstable,
irresponsible, unreliable, fickle, feckless, tergiversating, flirtatious,
coquettish, playful.
-free:
freeborn, enfranchised,
heart-whole, fancy-free, unattached, scot-free, acquitted, on the loose, at
large, escaped, released, freed, liberated, free as air, free as the wind, free
as a bird, footloose, go-as-you-please, ranging, travelling, ranging freely,
having full play, licensed, chartered, privileged, permitted, exempt, immune,
nonliable, free-speaking, plain-spoken, plain, free-thinking, emancipated,
broad, broadminded, latitudinarian, unbiased, unprejudiced, independent,
uninfluenced, just, free and easy, all things to all men, sociable, loose,
licentious, unbridled, incontinent, wanton,
impure, at leisure, out of harness, retired, relaxed, unbuttoned, at home, at
ease, leisurely, free of cost, gratis, freebie, on the house, for free, unpaid
for, uncharged, unclaimed, going begging, unwanted, free for all, unreserved,
vacant, unoccupied, up for grabs, accessible.
-rash:
ill-considered,
ill-conceived, ill-advised, harebrained, foolhardy, wildcat, injudicious,
indiscreet, imprudent, unwise, careless, hit-and-miss, slapdash, free-and-easy,
accident-prone, negligent, unforeseeing, not-looking, uncircumspect,
lemming-like, incautious, unwary, heedless, thoughtless, inconsiderate,
uncalculating, inattentive, light, frivolous, airy, breezy, flippant, giddy,
devil-may-care, harum-scarum, slaphappy, trigger-happy, light-minded, irresponsible,
reckless, regardless, couldn’t-care-less, don’t-care, damning the consequences,
lunatic, wanton, wild, cavalier,
bold, daring, temerarious, audacious, overdaring, overbold, madcap, daredevil,
do-or-die, neck or nothing, breakneck, suicidal, overambitious, over the top,
oversanguine, oversure, overconfident, hoping, overweening, presumptuous,
arrogant, insolent, precipitate, gadarene, headlong, hell-bent, desperate,
hasty, unchecked, headstrong, wilful, untaught by experience, ignorant, impulsive,
impatient, hot-bloodied, fire-eating, furious, excitable, danger-loving,
unfearing, venturesome, speculative, adventurous, thrill-seeking, risk-taking,
enterprising, improvident, thriftless, prodigal.
-unchaste:
unvirtuous, vicious,
susceptible, not impregnable, frail, fallen, seduced, prostituted, taken
advantage of, of easy virtue, of loose morals, amoral, immoral, incontinent,
light, wanton, loose, fast, naughty,
wild, rackety, immodest, daring, revealing, unblushing, shameless, brazen,
flaunting, scarlet, meretricious, whorish, tarty, promiscuous, sleeping around,
screwing around, streetwalking, on the game, Paphian, Aphrodisian.
A total of 380
alternatives is presented. True, some are duplicated under the various
headings, but there are still many from which the writer may choose. Anyone not
conversant with the ways of the thesaurus might be fooled into selecting any
one of these words as an alternative to ‘wanton’. And, whilst a great many of them could act as
a suitable replacement, there are many which would not do at all.
Let’s try it:
‘She dressed in a manner
suggestive of her shifting nature, advertising her readiness to serve any and
every man present.’
‘He pulled his partner
back to his feet and knocked him down again, before laying into him in coquettish
violence as the poor wretch lay at his feet.’
In the female sentence,
the woman is now no longer specifically a sexually active creature but someone
who accommodates to the needs of the men, perhaps in order to deal with their
work requirements.
In the male version, the
violence has taken a farcical turn, possibly describing a lover’s tiff solved
by aggressive coitus.
So, perhaps not the best
possible example but one that I hope illustrates the importance of ensuring
that you understand the real meaning before substituting one word for another. We don’t, after all, want any tarty violence
perpetrated on any free-thinking men, do we? Or, perhaps, we do!
