Peter Mark Roget

@Academics, Birthday and Facts

Peter Mark Roget was an English physician and philologist who is most celebrated for 'Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases'.

Jan 18, 1779

BritishUniversity Of EdinburghIntellectuals & AcademicsInventors & DiscoverersPhysiciansCapricorn Celebrities
Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: January 18, 1779
  • Died on: September 12, 1869
  • Nationality: British
  • Famous: Academics, Intellectuals, Lexicographer, University Of Edinburgh, Intellectuals & Academics, Inventors & Discoverers, Physicians
  • Spouses: Mary Taylor
  • Known as: Peter Mark Roget, Roget, Peter Roget
  • Universities:
    • University Of Edinburgh
    • University of Edinburgh

Peter Mark Roget born at

Soho

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Birth Place

Roget was married to Mary Taylor and had two children, one son, John, and a daughter named Catherine. His wife died in 1833 and he never remarried.

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Personal Life

Peter Mark Roget died on September 12, 1869, in West Malvern, Worcestershire, England, at the age of 90. He is buried there in the cemetery of St James's Church.

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Personal Life

Peter Mark Roget was born on January 18, 1779, in Soho, London, England, to Jean Roget, a Swiss clergyman, and his wife, Catherine Romilly. He had a younger sister.

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Childhood & Early Life

The death of his father when Peter was a child had a deep impact on him. He struggled with depression for most of his life. By the age of eight, his fascination with list-making as a coping mechanism was well established.

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Childhood & Early Life

After completing school, Roget went to the University of Edinburgh where he studied medicine, graduating in 1798.

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Childhood & Early Life

From 1808 to 1840, he practiced as an able physician in London, and also became an inventor, natural theologian and a lexicographer in his illustrious career.

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Career

In 1814, he invented a ‘log-log’ slide rule for calculating the roots and powers of numbers. It helped to perform exponential and root calculations and was particularly useful for calculations involving fractional powers and roots.

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Career

Later, he developed an interest in optics and in December 1824, Roget presented a paper entitled ‘Explanation of an optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures’.

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Career

In 1834, he became the first Fullerian Professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution. Later, he played a key role in the establishment of the University of London in 1836, where he worked as an examiner in physiology.

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Career

He also published numerous papers on physiology and health, such as the fifth ‘Bridgewater Treatise’, ‘Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology’ (1834), and articles for several editions of ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’.

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Career

Peter Mark Roget is most remembered for his ‘Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ (1852), a comprehensive classification of synonyms or verbal equivalents that is still popular in modern editions.

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Major Works

His significant accomplishments include the invention of a ‘log-log’ slide rule in 1814, used to calculate number roots and squares. The rule was the standard method for calculation until the invention of calculator.

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Major Works