Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The scientific study of the tongue and its diseases.
  • noun The definition and explanation of terms, as of a dialect, a science, etc
  • noun The science of language; universal grammar; comparative philology; glottology.
  • noun Also glottology.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The definition and explanation of terms; a glossary.
  • noun The science of language; comparative philology; linguistics; glottology.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine The study of the tongue and its diseases.
  • noun The definition and explanation of terms in constructing a glossary.
  • noun The science of language; linguistics.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glōssa, "tongue, language") + -logy.

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Examples

  • Mr. Wright, in editing this handsome volume, has done another service to the lovers and students of English glossology.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 08, June 1858 Various

  • It is proved by physiology, by psychology, by glossology, and by civil history.

    Ten Great Religions An Essay in Comparative Theology James Freeman Clarke 1849

  • This has appeared and is proved by means of glossology, or the science of language.

    Ten Great Religions An Essay in Comparative Theology James Freeman Clarke 1849

  • _Gloze_ is from the old word _glose_, a gloss or explanation (Gr. _glossa_, the tongue): hence also glossary, glossology, etc. Trench, in his lecture on the Morality of Words, points out how often fair names are given to ugly things: it is in this way that a word which merely denoted an explanation has come to denote a false explanation, an endeavour to deceive.

    Milton's Comus John Milton 1641

  • Consider William Taylor's plea (in the "Annual Review and History of Literature," 1808): "We appeal to every lover of glossology in general, and of English literature in particular, for assistance to promulgate and to preserve a supplement to Johnson's Dictionary ...."

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol X No 4 1984

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