Thesaurus.com Apologizes for “Arab” Search Results

The word “Arab” has been removed from the online edition of Roget’s Thesaurus after Arab-American groups complained synonyms for the word included “slimeball,” “welfare bum,” and “holy terror.”

Barbara Ann Kipfer, editor of the third edition of Roget’s 21st Century Thesaurus, told AP the term was included in the online version because it’s part of “street arab,” an 18th-century term she said had appeared in other thesauruses that refers to a homeless child who has been abandoned and roams through the streets.

She begins an explanation of why a search of “Arab” had yielded the results it did. But wait! She’s veering away from a politically correct answer. Stop the explanation! Back on track!

“It shouldn’t be there,” she said. “It looks like it’s on the same level of everything else, that it’s acceptable. But it’s not. We’re simply going to take it out. The last thing you want with a thesaurus is to offend anyone. You never want to offend.”

Ah, that’s more like it. We don’t want to “offend” anyone.

To get an idea on what probably happened here, do a few searches for yourself. If you search for “street arab,” for example, you will get 49 main entries, one of which is “beggar,” and if you look at the synonyms for “beggar,” you will find “deadbeat,” “freeloader,” “sponger,” “tramp,” etc. Other main entries include “bag lady” and “street person.” Just as importantly, look at the many main entries that have a totally neutral connotation and no apparent relation to the term “street arab” at all.

Similarly, a search for “Canadian” yields only one main entry, which is “meat.” (I’d be broiling mad if I were Canadian.) A search for “Caucasian” yields only one main entry (“white”), whose synonyms include “ghastly” and “bloodless.” I’m offended by the way, and plan on writing asking for an apology and to have the word “ghastly” stricken from the record.. and “bloodless” too while I’m at it.

I think the point of a thesaurus is that you are supposed to use some common sense in deciding which words do and don’t apply. The other lesson is that search engines don’t always yield logical results. (Look at Google.) You’ve got to use your brain with any of these tools; and if you get offended by simple searches such as this one, you are starting to let your computer do your thinking for you.