On the Wonders and Joy of the Thesaurus (in Obsidian)

Language control can shrink thought, but a richer vocabulary can widen it—and a digital thesaurus built for linked notes turns that idea into a practical workflow. The core claim is that expanding word choice doesn’t just make writing prettier; it improves how people think, analyze, and connect, while also reducing vulnerability to manipulation that relies on emotional, simplified language.

The transcript opens with George Orwell’s “1984” and Newspeak as a warning: removing “bad” and “great” words until only flattened opposites remain (“ungood” and “double plus good”) traps people in a narrower mental range. That framing sets up the video’s counterpoint: instead of treating big words as a threat to identity, people can use them as tools. The thesaurus becomes a way to resist “Big Brother” dynamics—whether literal or political—by making it harder for populists and other bad actors to steer attention using fear, anger, and outrage.

A major portion then focuses on a specific digital resource: a publicly hosted Obsidian Publish version of Peter Mark Roget’s thesaurus (1852), using the “third edition of the 21st century edition” and the concept index by Barbara Ann Kipfer. The creator describes receiving a “gift” from Dennis: a digital copy with a concept index, plus striking scale metrics—about 14,000 distinct notes with definitions, roughly 44,000 words total, and around 420,000 links connecting entries. In Obsidian, hovering over words reveals definitions instantly, and clicking through creates a “rabbit hole” effect where related terms and concepts branch outward.

The transcript demonstrates two navigation modes. First is lateral synonym browsing: starting from a word like “astonish,” the interface surfaces synonyms such as “amaze,” “astound,” “bewilder,” “overwhelm,” and “stupefy.” Second is concept-based browsing using the concept index: “astonish” is linked to “surprise,” which sits under a higher-order meta note (“actions of a cognitive nature”). From there, the user can move up a level to see broader categories and down to adjacent terms—turning word lookup into a structured exploration of meaning.

Beyond synonyms and concepts, the transcript emphasizes categories as a map for serendipity. The categories list includes domains like actions (cognitive, general, motion, physical), causes, fields of human activity (communications, education, entertainment, government, legal, military), professions, recreation, religion, social interactions, the arts, life forms, objects, matter, qualities, senses, and geography. Examples include landscape subcategories like “savannah,” “tundra,” “quagmire,” and “ravine,” framed as ways to describe not just places but felt experiences.

The closing takeaway is both practical and motivational: use the thesaurus for “word excursions” by scrolling the word list or opening the concept index categories note. The promised benefits are improved thinking, richer expression, more nuanced analysis of similarities and differences, greater joy in interactions, and a stronger defense against emotionally manipulative persuasion. The resource is positioned as freely available online via Obsidian Publish, encouraging immediate exploration.