Monday, March 03, 2008

Two different sorts of dictionaries


As some writing friends told me about Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier, I decided to order it as well as a flip dictionary.
A word menu is a reference dictionary organized by subject matter, rather than in alphabetical order.
So for example there is a section on advertising and it gives all the words that are associated with the profession, plus their meaning. Or a section the home where all the different parts of a room, or even different words for rooms are listed. Or there is a section on the verbs to do with motion.

The Flip dictionary is a dictionary based on clues or cues rather than alphabetic order. So if you know there is a word for a scented mixture in a bag or box -- you can look it up and find pomander, sachet.
You want to know the science of law -- jurispurdence, the science of housekeeping is oikology btw
Or sea, person unfamiliar with --landlubber
sea robber -- buccaneer, corsair, freebooter, pirate, privateer
confiscate for miltary use -- commandeer

Both are highly addictive for different reasons and this should help my word choice no end.

1 comment:

Kate Hardy said...

Oikology?

Wow. What a word.

I think you've just sold me a copy of those two. I love lists like that.

I'm going to have to look up the derivation of the word (clearly Greek - but I always thought that an 'oik' was similar to a 'chav' so... hmm...).

I think this could be very, very bad distraction material. Going to order my copies now :o)