We cleaned out my dad's house this weekend, and my brothers, knowing I like words and language, saved a dictionary of my grandfather's for me. It is the March's Thesaurus Dictionary: A Treasure House of Words and Knowledge. And that it is! It is very different from another thesaurus or dictionary, with lots of additional information, such as the history of language with a discussion of early Egyptian characters. It is laid out very interestingly, and I am still trying to figure that part out. For example, it features a word with other words under it, which are all defined. So it does have definitions, but it is a thesaurus too.
Have any of you seen it before? It was first published in 1902, and the copyright on mine is 1925.
March's thesaurus dictionary; a treasure house of words and knowledge, prepared under the supervision of America's foremost philologist, Francis Andrew March and Francis A. March, jr. To his 1925 ed. has been added an amplified appendix.
Francis Andrew March (October 25, 1825 – September 9, 1911) was an American polymath, academic, philologist, and lexicographer. He is considered the principal founder of modern comparative linguistics in Anglo-Saxon.
March applied the methods of studying the Latin and Greek classics towards the study of English literature, and led the way for the first scientific study of the English language.
March was born in Millbury, Massachusetts. He graduated from Amherst College in 1845, and received a M.A. degree from Amherst in 1848. After studying law and teaching for three years, he became instructor at Lafayette College. March occupied the chair of English language and comparative philology at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pennsylvania, from 1857 to 1907. It was the first post of its kind. March was one of the first professors to advocate and teach English in colleges and universities.
In addition to English, March also taught French, German, Greek, Latin, botany, "mental philosophy", political economy, the Constitution, and law.
He also served as president of the American Philological Association (1873–1874; 1895–1896), the Spelling Reform Association (after 1876), and the Modern Language Association (1891–1893).
March was the first American superintendent over the volunteer reading program of the Oxford English Dictionary, thus providing valuable support to James Murray in the compilation of this monumental work.