Are you a good speaker, or for that matter, are you a good writer? Ask yourself one more question - are you a ‘Jedi’ in English? Given a scale of 1 to 10, if you were to be asked to rate yourself, what would your own rating be?
Questions, questions and more questions, but no answers! Well, let me act as a catalyst by volunteering an answer from my side - frankly, if I were to rate myself, shedding all false modesty and at the same time not being too smug or pedantic, I would honestly rate myself as 5.75.
But, then, achieving anything above 6 on this scale is a pretty difficult proposition. Difficult it is, but, definitely not “Mission Impossible”. All my member friends who have watched the Hollywood Blockbuster would know that, ultimately, it was ‘mission possible’.
In our quest for a better knowledge of English and also, making this ‘mission’ possible, we have acting like Tom Cruise, a guide-book uncharacteristically titled “READER’S DIGEST REVERSE DICTIONARY”
WHAT PRECISELY IS REVERSE DICTIONARY?
The REVERSE DICTIONARY’s main purpose is to facilitate the votaries of English in selecting the right words to convey the right message. You already have the word, but don’t know its meaning; the ‘dictionary’ helps you to understand the meaning and its usage. What if you already had the meaning or the idea but aren’t too sure of the appropriate word, then REVERSE DICTIONARY is the right book for you.
REVERSE DICTIONARY is compiled by Wordcraft Editing and Writing Limited. It is edited and designed by The Reader’s Digest Association, London. The editor for RD is John Ellison Kahn, MA, DPhil and the consultant editor is Robert Ilson, MA, PhD (Associate Director of The Survey of English Usage, Honorary Research Fellow, University College, London, and also, Editor, International Journal of Lexicography.
The REVERSE DICTIONARY is not available in retail stores. You need to get it directly from Reader’s Digest through their Mail Order service. This book comes hardbound with 768 pages in almost A4 size. The quality and print is excellent as you would expect from Reader’s Digest. On the downside, it costs close to Rs.1000/-
CONCEPTUALIZING THE WORD:
We all know how difficult it is sometimes to get the right or the appropriate word. We feel as though the word is dangling before us but we cannot lay our finger (or rather, tongue) on it. This is called ‘mislaying’ of words. You know this word, you are certain it is hanging before you, but when you reach out for it, it is just not there. This is likened to “a person expecting a sneeze, the anticipation is there, the concentration is there….ultimately when the sneeze doesn’t oblige you, the frustration is, also, there”.
The REVERSE DICTIONARY acts much like a snuff box, just a tiny pinch helps you to get the much maligned sneeze out of your system, and the relief it provides is nothing less than absolute bliss.
MULTI-PRONGED ATTACK:
Reverse Dictionary acts much like a ‘Google Search’ in the maze of words; it’s a word finder extraordinaire. Its message is simple, ‘if you have the idea, I have the word’ - it seems to convey. It takes you from a familiar word connected with the idea to the elusive word you are looking for. It’s like “from the word you know to the word you need”.
It leads you to the elusive target word in any of three different ways:
By means of a definition leading you directly to the target word.
Referring you to a chart of terms on a particular subject, with the target
word among them.
- Referring you to an illustration on which the target word is pinpointed.
WHAT’S THE RIGHT WORD?
It works on the principle that the “linguistic side of the human mind works by lateral thinking as well as straight line logical thinking” and many cue words have been selected to aid this process. The ‘RD’, also, asserts that a target word may even be cued by its opposite if that seems a promising approach. Its like this, if you do not get the right word to convey an idea, look up the words that convey the opposite meaning - you are more likely to pick up a link to the word you are searching for.
ENRICHING YOUR VOCABULARY CAN BE A NICE PASTIME:
The RD is not just a word finder; it also builds your vocabulary. It brings into your working English a whole set of new words that could be more appropriate than the words you were using hitherto. Words that were earlier on the borderline of your limited vocabulary could now be part of your growing vocabulary. Not only that, it could open whole new vistas in, what ‘RD’ calls, the hinterland of the English language.
MY REFLECTIONS:
If you ever wished to be the life of the party! If you had always wasted much of your valuable time searching for that elusive telling phrase which would make all the difference, but was thwarted by your limited and highly unreliable vocabulary – then, this is a book that will be a boon to you. I find this book highly useful for selecting the right word.
Earlier, I depended on a Thesaurus for my writing needs. Now, I find ‘REVERSE DICTIONARY’ immensely gratifying and useful for literary pursuits. This book, in my opinion, can be a goldsmith’s tool, or a blacksmith’s forge. With the aid of this highly useful book, you can either write beautiful flowery English, or highly effective no nonsense English.
© M B Farookh, 2004
I acknowledge some of the thoughts and quotes mentioned in this review are the property of Reader’s Digest.
