thesaurus
Dean’s Thesaurus: 1,000 words to save us from extinction (logo: dinosaur)
A semantheon has groups of pairs; every pair has two opposite primes, each of which has a lexigraph, a tree of clustered synonyms. A semantheon is a hierarchical map of all meaning, and it can work in any language.
Here are the groups: space, time, quantity, quality, evaluations, emotions, interactions, change.
Here’s a story about the sequence of
... See moreApparently Microsoft Word said that “charming” and “chocolate box” are synonyms. This is a thesaurus gone wild. I wonder how much computers promoted the idea of all synonyms being interchangeable.
Imagine a “situational thesaurus.” Instead of just unpacking related words, you unpack all the contexts that a word can apply. Examples:
addle — social media, work, disinformation (dilution from quantity)
faustian — VR / AGI or e/acc, finance, cloning, influencers, adderall, steroids
platonic — solids, relationships, education, leisure, cognition
Here is what AI suggests are the differences between synonyms:
... See moreConnotation: Connotation refers to the emotional or cultural associations that a word carries beyond its literal meaning (denotation). For example, "slender," "thin," and "skinny" might be considered synonyms, but each has a different connotation – "slender" is often positive, "thin" is
Thesaurus runs:
absurdity: paradox, inanity, folly, ludicrousness, comicality, koan, double think, bathos, travesty, ridicule, doubletalk, twaddle, fustian, galimatias, poppycock, crock, bushwah, flummadiddle, blarney, blather, jive, piffle, dada, preposterous, fatuous, cockamime.
disorder: derangement, disquiet, discord, disarray, jumble, dishevel
The standard tool to find webs of language are synonyms & antonym, but these are lossy devices. Consider a word like “uproar:” the antonyms are obvious (“harmony”) and if you look up the definitions of the synonyms (“bedlam, tumult, pandemonium”), they all say “uproar.” It’s circular!
In reality, every synonym should have a distinct meaning: be
... See moreFor the semantheon, roots should be indivisible. A root obviously has multiple synonyms. Synonyms can have multiple roots (and it’s also need to think that the variation between synonyms comes from a relationship with another root.) But you can’t link roots to other roots. For example: “before” and “in front” can be synonyms (“I stood before it” /
... See moreA thesaurus is a word treasury.