Why other languages don't use thesauruses like we do

And other strange truths about these handy-yet-unsatisfying reference books

Thesaurus
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Thesauruses exist mainly for English. Few other thesauruses are compiled for other languages. (Japanese is a notable exception.) Why is this?

The richness of the English vocabulary and the wealth of available synonyms means that English speakers can often draw shades of distinction unavailable to non-English speakers. Modern English has an unusually large number of synonyms or near-synonyms, mainly because of the influence of very different language groups: Germanic (Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse, the main basis of English), Romance languages (Latin, French), and Greek. There are many sets of triplet synonyms from Anglo-Saxon/Latin/Greek and also Anglo-Saxon/Norman French/Latin-Greek like cool-calm-collected and foretell-predict-prophesy. Peter Mark Roget's intent was to catalog words by meanings, but he ended up inventing a new form of reference book.

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Barbara Ann Kipfer is the author of more than 50 books, including the bestselling 14,000 Things to be Happy About and The Wish List, Instant Karma, 8,789 Words of Wisdom, Self-Meditation, and The Order of Things. Barbara has an MPhil and PhD in Linguistics, a PhD in Archaeology, and an MA and PhD in Buddhist Studies. She is a lexicographer and ontologist. Her websites are www.thingstobehappyabout.com and www.referencewordsmith.com.