Word: thesauruses
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First Deeds. Then he plunged into work. The great mahogany desk in the oval study had been cleared of all of Franklin Roosevelt's crowding knickknacks. On it lay only a Bible, a thesaurus, and a leather-bound pictorial history of the U.S. In rapid order, President Truman had a 45-minute conference with Secretary of State Stettinius, then a 48-minute session with the war leaders: Generals Marshall, Vandegrift and the Air Forces' Barney M. Giles (subbing for "Hap" Arnold); Admiral King; Secretaries Stimson and Forrestal. At noon he broke his first precedent: he went...
...verb "to mugg" apparently stems from the dank soil of 19th Century prisons, where "mugger" was synonymous with footpad-"one of the wretched horde who haunt the street at midnight to rob drunken men." Its meaning, as given by the American Thesaurus of Slang: robbery with violence. In New York City muggers usually attack from behind if possible, throwing one arm around the victim's neck, while the assistant muggers frisk the victim...
...different, which lie, on the literate tongue, just between tantalizing half-memory and ready reference. H. L. Mencken's A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources ($7.50) was as rich a book for ruminators as the year brought; and The American Thesaurus of Slang ($5), edited by Lester V. Berrey and Melvin Van den Bark, came about as near completely corralling the living, dead and deathless in native idiom as could be humanly expected of one volume. The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music ($3.95) was the most comprehensive book of its kind...
...networks have let the British get ahead of them in the use of transcriptions. Those used by local U.S. stations have consisted mainly of music, light drama and advertising. But this month a series of British-style documentaries went out to more than 300 radio stations which use the Thesaurus Service of NBC's Radio-Recording Division. The best of the series, Commandos, proved that a canned program can be just as hot as one broadcast "live...
Lester V. Berrey has been at work on this absorbing, 1,174-page thesaurus since 1931. He got special checking help from such experts as Bing Crosby (on music), Variety's Jack Edward (entertainment slang), John A. Leslie of Ohio State Prison on the language of tramps and the underworld. His collaborator, Nebraskan Philologist Melvin Van den Bark, worked out the main outlines of classification and groupings of words. In general these follow Roget but they culminate in 430 highly readable pages on "Special Slang" of various trades, sports and regions. That section alone will probably help more third...