Descriptionary: A Thematic Dictionary, bills itself as “The book for when you know what it is, but not what it’s called.”
Knowing “what it is” apparently means knowing what broad category (type/class?) to browse. Organized into twenty (20) subject categories that are further sub-divided into smaller categories. For example, “Clothing” is a major category, with eight sub-categories for “Clothing of Ancient Greece” to “Clothing of the 20 Century,” with further sub-divisions under 20th Century.
A topic map would do a much better job, particularly since any subject could appear under multiple categories. And subjects could be searched for with multiple properties.
Association, occurrence, proxy, topic, topic map, etc., do not appear in a section titled “1,050 Words and Expressions You Should Know.” I will request correction of that oversight in future editions.
Not as amusing as Liam Quin’s reproduction of Nathan Bailey’s Canting Dictionary [thieving slang], but it does have entries like “crinoline [hoop skirt]:: “…The skirt itself was often hitched up to show a scarlet petticoat beneath.” Perhaps the Balisage markup conference will organize a game to guess the likely source of misinformation in various entries.