“The last thing you want with a thesaurus is to offend anyone.”

So says Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD, the online editor for Roget’s Thesaurus.

Roget’s recently scrubbed several offensive synonyms from the entry for Arab:

The entry, which appeared on thesaurus.com, listed the word as a noun meaning “beggar,” and gave 16 pejorative synonyms including “homeless person” and “welfare bum.”

Sounds pretty reasonable that these entries should be removed. Aside from being offensive, they simply aren’t accurate reflections of common linguistic usage.

“I looked it up and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum[.]

I feel your pain, brother. You should check out all the derogatory synonyms that Roget’s is still listing for the word conservative.