A compendium is a succinct collection of a body of knowledge.

It may summarize a larger work

as well. Different compendia have their own characteristics peculiar to them but there exist
similarities between one compendium and another. In this paper, we would compare two
different compendia- Rogets Thesaurus and the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) with the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED). We shall first compare Rogets Thesaurus
with the SOED in relation to the word information.
Firstly, the SOED is a collection of the vocabulary of English arranged in an alphabetical order.
That is, every word appears under the collection of words based of the first letter of the word. It,
therefore, requires a users knowledge of the letters of English to be able to use the SOED easily.
Rogets Thesaurus is a compilation of words relating to different disciplines of human endeavour
like science, business, communication among others. Unlike the SOED, the words in Rogets
Thesaurus are arranged according to the discipline to which they belong. That is, words
frequently associated with a particular discipline are entered under that discipline. For example,
the word information appears under the letter I in the SOED but in Rogets Thesaurus, the
word appears under the category Communication of Ideas which is a sub-category of the
section Intellect.
Secondly, the SOED transcribes the words so that users can pronounce them. The word
information is transcribed in the SOED as /infmei()n/. This enables users to know the
actual pronunciation of the word. In Rogets Thesaurus, however, the words are not transcribed.
Thirdly, the SOED gives the meanings of the words and examples of their usages. We realize
that in the SOED, the word information is said to mean communication of the knowledge of
some fact or occurrence and it is used in the construction by G. Borrow For your information,

however, I will tell you that it is not. This is not the case in Rogets Thesaurus. Rogets
Thesaurus does not give the meanings of the words and there are no examples of usages as well.
Fourthly, the SOED gives the period when a word entered the language as well as the origin of
the word. For example, the word information is said to have been used in English in the late
Middle English period (LME) and it originated from old French and modern French from Latin
informatio(n). Rogets Thesaurus does not give any of such information as origin and period of
use.
Despite the differences discussed above, the two compendia share some similarities. Both give
the synonyms of words in their entries. In Rogets Thesaurus, the word information has
enlightenment and knowledge as its synonyms while in the SOED, the word information
has knowledge as one of its synonyms.
Additionally, both compendia indicate the word class that a word belongs to. We realize that the
word information belongs to the noun class in both the SOED and Rogets Thesaurus.
Having compared the SOED and Rogets Thesaurus, we shall now compare the SOED and the
Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) in relation to the word imam.
Firstly, the SOED like the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) arranges words
alphabetically. This suggests that they both demand users knowledge of the letters of the
English alphabet to be able to locate words easily. Therefore in both compendia, the word
imam is entered under the letter I.
Secondly, both compendia give the phonetic transcriptions of words. This is to enable users to
pronounce such words. However, we realize that the phonetic signs used in transcribing the word

imam differ slightly in both compendia. In the SOED, the word is transcribed as /ima:m/ while
in the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006), it is transcribed as /imm/.
Thirdly, both compendia give the meanings of words. In the SOED, the word imam means the
leader of prayers in a mosque while in the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) it means the
head of a Muslim community. The Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006), however, goes
ahead to give detailed information about the word. For example, in addition to the meaning of
imam as stated earlier, the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) adds that In Sunni Islam
the imam was identical with the CALIPH, designating the political successor of
MUHAMMAD.
In spite of these similarities between the SOED and the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia
(2006), there are significant differences between them as well.
The SOED indicates the word class of a particular word but this is not the case in the Britannica
Concise Encyclopaedia (2006). Therefore, whereas the word imam is designated as a noun in
the SOED, its word class is not indicated in the Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006).
Also, the SOED gives the origin of a word as well as the period in which the word was used in
English. In the SOED, the origin of the word imam is Arabic and it is derived from the Arabic
word amma which means lead the way. It further indicates that the word was used in English in
the early 17th Century. The Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia (2006) does not indicate the
origin of the word neither does it give the period in which the word was used in English.
In view of the above, we realize that although all the three compendia discussed above are a
compilation of a body of knowledge, there exist similarities and significant differences in
relation to the extent of information given about the various words.
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