May 132013
Descriptionary: A Thematic Dictionary (Facts on File Library of Language and Literature)
At last, here’s a reference book that works the way the mind works, allowing students to locate that elusive word to the specific thing, e.g., What do you call that belt for a tuxedo? Answer: Cummerbund. “This book is one of those small wonders…Highly recommended.” — THE BOOK REPORT.
The subtitle of Descriptionary says it’s “the book for when you know what it is, but not what it’s called.” Pretty useful, eh? But that description is also a bit limiting, as this handy reference guide can b
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a useful resource,
The organization of this dictionary is unique and mostly successful.
I set myself a task of trying to “find” seven items: igneous rock, a Nehru jacket, plie, onomatopoeia, ballast and cream. Finding a category called Environment led to a subcategory of Geology which was 3 pages long — it took about 30 seconds to find “igneous”. Looking under Clothing and then right on to the Jackets subcategory, I was able to find “Nehru jacket” in about ten seconds. Performing Arts and Broadcasting led to a subcategory of Dance and a sub-subcategory of Ballet which was 2 pages long — it took only 12 seconds to find “plie”. A category called Words About Words was 8 pages long — trying to find “onomatopoeia” here, if you didn’t know what letter it started with, was time-consuming; still, it was easier than finding it in a standard dictionary! It was surprisingly easy to find “ballast”, found under Transportation and located in the short listing under the sub-category Aviation, sub-subcategory Aircraft and sub-sub-subcategory Balloons. Finally, trying to find out about the layers of milk to find “cream” was unsuccessful. Looking under Animals and then the subcategory Livestock I found only a list of dairy cattle breeds, and looking in the index at the back under “dairy” and “milk” I found nothing applicable, though I did look up “milk-kneading” and “milk-teeth” when I ran across them just out of curiosity. And that is a positive feature — that this dictionary, like many good reference tools, allows and even encourages serendipitous forays into its contents.
There is a very inclusive alphabetical index at the back, in case you don’t know where to begin in an organizational map such as the Contents.
This reference tool’s flaws are most likely due to the author’s interests or weaknesses. For instance, while Sports gets a whopping 70 pages, the Food section is only 8 pages long and divided into four subcategories, one of which is French cooking terms and the other three are about liquor! A science category per se is not present, though human biology can be found under Medicine, some information will be found under Animals, and a fair amount of information is available under Environment, though you would be hard-pressed to find any mention of chemistry or physics here.
Another weakness is the absence of pronunciation or usage guides in any but the ’1,050 Words and Expressions You Should Know’ section. In addition, one is basically limited to nouns. That given, there should be pictures, which would make identification much quicker, particularly in sections like Tools.
All in all, this is a very useful resource with some limitations, and I recommend it.
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It’s on the tip of my tongue…,
De.scrip.tion.ary, n., a big book of words arranged in a common sense order designed to help the reader find an unknown word. Similar to dictionary and thesaurus, with key differences.
Many times, people have the word just on the tip of their tongues, but cannot find the word. Dictionaries are often no help in such instances. Despite the wealth of information contained therein, and the imminently logical organisation (the same goes for a thesaurus), often what is needed is more of a reverse directory. Indeed, comedians past and present have made entire routines out of the difficulties of using a dictionary (how does one look up the spelling of a word if one doesn’t know how to spell it?). While these difficulties have doubtless been exaggerated, there is definitely room on the reference shelf for a book such as the Descriptionary, a wonderful resource for finding just the right word from a definition.
`A standard dictionary will tell you the meaning of a word, a thesaurus will give you a list of synonyms, but only Descriptionary directs you straight to the word itself.’
The Descriptionary is arranged thematically. These themes are developed and arranged by broad category, narrowing the field of research for any given word search. Under each broad theme, there are literally thousands of words. The definitions are not lengthy, but just of sufficient length to permit identification.
- Animals and Insects
- Architecture
- Clothing
- Electronics
- Environment
- Finance
- Food and Drink
- Human Body and Mind
- Language
- Law
- Magic and the Occult
- Medicine
- Military
- Music
- Occupations
- Performing Arts
- Religions
- Sports
- Tools
- Transportation
- Weapons
However, thousands of words per category would still make for a daunting task of location of just the right word. Therefore, each major theme is broken into smaller sections, and yet smaller subsections. Take, for instance, the organisation under the heading Religions:
Religions
..Ancient Religions
….Ancient Egyptian Worship
….Greek and Roman Mythology
….Monsters and Fabulous Creatures
..Modern Religions
….Buddhism
….Christianity
….Hinduism
….Islam
….Judaism
Perhaps it will be your dharma to forget the term for enlightenment (under Buddhism, nirvana), or perhaps your searching requires some cutting edge information (under Judaism, see mohel). You needn’t be gifted in speaking in tongues (glossolalia, under Christianity) to find the right word here.
Each subsection contains a few hundred words, which makes the Descriptionary very useful for looking up related and relevant terms in any area. Rather than having to fumble through a dictionary for hoped-for connexions based on definitions, one has in one compact list all of the major terminology for each category and subcategory. In very few dictionaries would one be able to find the connexions between the words ablation, drift, horn, striation, and trimline (they all have to do with glaciers).
The index is wonderful for pinpointing the multiple uses of words. For instance, the word ace has multiple meanings, including one definition under Performing Arts and no fewer than five different meanings under Sports. This book will help one to ace the understanding.
Following the main part of the Descriptionary is a section entitled `1050 words and expressions you should know’. The author has here compiled a listing of ‘big’ words and phrases that turn up on a fairly regular basis in such media as Time, Newsweek, and broadcast news. These are fairly common words that are often misunderstood. The literate may wonder that so many common and ‘easy’ words are included here; they are, unfortunately, included because of the current state of education — so many high school and even college graduates lack a working literate vocabulary. However, it does the scholar’s ego good — there was not one word or phrase among the 1050 that was unfamiliar to me.
This is an American book. The definitions and descriptions definitely assume the American derivative of English. Under Sports, for instance, there is both football and soccer descriptions, but no cricket. However, Sports does get considerable play by including everything from archery to windsurfing to bullfighting to thoroughbred racing.
We each of us have our blind spots in education, and the Descriptionary, by pulling the key vocabulary of each field together in a brief and succinct manner, serves to provide a ready reference ‘cheat sheet’ to understanding the major points of almost any popular topic. The author, Marc McCutcheon, is a freelance author, perhaps best known for his work on ‘Roget’s Super Thesaurus’ and ‘The Facts On File Student Thesaurus’. A talented and experienced wordsmith, McCutcheon’s Descriptionary will help ensure you are never without the right word.
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Reverse look-up for specific words,
This “descriptionary” is based on the premise that sometimes we know the function of an object but not its name. McCutcheon has thus divided his book into categories, not much different in theory from the traditional thesaurus structure. For instance, if you want to know the word for the paw motion cats and kittens do that looks like kneading, you look up first the main section on “Animals,” then the subcategory “Cats”, and finally find the word: “milk-treading.” The main categories are broad, including finance, clothing, weapons, sports, and many others. My main complaint is that it is not comprehensive enough. I would like to see a volume twice as thick so I would have a greater chance of finding the word I wanted.
Despite its flaws, DESCRIPTIONARY offers word help when it is most needed.
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