Glossa
(
γλῶσσα) and
Glossēma
(
γλώσσημα). In the language of text-criticism, a
“gloss.” The word underwent a gradual development of meaning, which may be
described with brevity. By the earliest Greek commentators and editors of texts,
γλῶσσα denoted any word in an author that required definition or
explanation. Such were (
a) archaisms; (
b)
ἅπαξ λεγόμενα and newly-coined words; (
c)
provincialisms; (
d) barbarisms; and (
e) technical
terms (cf.
Arist. Poet. 21.4-6;
Rhet. iii. 3, 2;
Quint. i. 8). In editing
or transcribing a text it was usual for the editor or transcriber to define the
γλῶσσα by writing opposite to it in the margin the more familiar
synonym (
ὄνομα κύριον). The term
γλῶσσα soon came to be applied to the pair of words—the word in the
text and the definition in the margin—the two being regarded as constituting a
single whole. Finally, the explanation alone was called a
γλῶσσα. With these glosses begins the history of lexicography; for collections of
them began to be made, and published separately as
glossaria or
glossaries. Such was the compilation of the elegiac poet Philetas of Cos, whose collection was
the first attempt at an Homeric glossary (cf. Susemihl,
Geschichte d. griech. Lit. in
d. alexandr. Zeit, i. p. 174 foll.). We know of glosses as early as the fifth century
B.C., for Democritus of Abdera is said to have written a treatise
Περὶ
Ὁμήρον ἢ Ὀρθοεπέιης καὶ Γλωσσάων. (See
Lexicon.) Glosses soon ceased to be purely lexical, and from definitions
became commentary— geographical, historical, philosophical, or
philological—according to the taste or purpose of the glossographer. When these
explanatory glosses are fairly brief, they are usually styled
scholia
(
σχόλια); when long, they constitute
ὑπομνήματα or regular commentaries, such as the Alexandrians wrote. See
Alexandrian School.
The principal glossographers among the Greeks were Philetas (about B.C. 290), Zenodotus of
Ephesus (about B.C. 280), compiler of
Γλῶσσαι Ὁμηρικαί;
Aristophanes of Byzantium (B.C. 200), whose glosses are partly preserved by Pollux; Diodorus,
Artemidorus, Nicander of Colophon, Aristarchus of Samothrace, Crates of Mallos, Zenodotus of
Mallos, Didymus Chalcenteros, Apollonius Sophista (about B.C. 20), Neoptolemus, known
distinctively as
ὁ γλωσσογράφος; Apion (at Rome under
Claudius), Erotion, Pamphilus, Aelius Herodianus, Pollux, Phrynichus in the second century
A.D., Ammonius of Alexandria in the fourth century, the famous
Hesychius (q.v.), Photius, Suidas, Zonaras, and the author of the
Etymologicum Magnum (q. v.). Of the Romans, Aurelius Opilius, Aelius Stilo,
Varro, Verrius Flaccus, and Festus deserve especial mention. Of technical glosses, those on
the legal compilations of Justinian are very important. Of these, two famous compilers were
Cyrillus and Philoxenus.
See Matthaei,
Glossaria Graeca (1774-75); Vater,
Litteratur der Grammatiken, Lexica, und Wörtersammlungen, etc.
(2d ed. by Jülg, Berlin, 1847); Hübner,
Encyclopädie, pp. 37-40;
Löwe, Prodromos
Corporis Glossariorum Latinorum (1876); id.
Glossae
Nominum (1884); and (now in preparation) the
Corpus
Glossariorum (by the Royal Saxon Soc. of Letters). On the legal glosses, see Biener,
Geschichte der Novellen, pp. 225 foll.; and for Biblical glosses, the article
“Gloss” in McClintock and Strong's
Cyclopaedia of Biblical
Literature, vol. iii. See also in this Dictionary, the articles
Lexicon;
Scholium;
Textual Criticism.