When an Arab-American group discovered that Roget’s online thesaurus included, as a synonym for “Arab,” various terms such as “beggar and “bum,” they contemplated how the Imperialist past had led writers like Kipling to introduce such connections into English, and vowed to make sure that they, themselves, did not contribute derogatory slang to the language.
Well, no, of course not. They complained. They called the press. They cried racism.
And, in the face of this, Roget’s did the reasonable thing. They noted that they were only describing the language as used, even if they found it, personally, deplorable, and while they would label it as derogatory, they couldn’t edit the English language to appease an interest group.
Well, no, of course not. They folded. They struck the entries from their online thesaurus. In fact, they removed all synonyms for Arab.
Barbara Ann Kipfer, editor of the third edition of Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, said the entry had likely been on the site for years, but never made it into printed versions of the thesaurus.
“We’re simply going to take it out,” she said on Monday. “The last thing you want with a thesaurus is to offend anyone.”
Right. That’s the very last thing you want in a thesaurus. A thesaurus’s job, after all, is to make everyone feel happy and good about themselves.
Assaf said he was satisfied that the listing had been removed. ”We look forward to working with them, should they need a proper definition of the word. The easier definition is ‘anyone who is Arabic,’ which would have been more than sufficient” he said.
Nice work when you can define words for the thesaurus that way. Winston Smith would be proud.
(via ypsidixit)