philologia

Forms

philologia f (genitive philologiae); first declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek φιλολογία (philología, “love of discussion, love of learning”),^[1][3][4][5] from φίλος (phílos, “dear, friend”) and λόγος (lógos, “word, speech”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first author is Cicero.^[4][6] Writing to Atticus from his estate at Arpinum, he decides not to lament his troubles, so that the labour and lamp oil of their philologia should not have been wasted: ne et opera et oleum philologiae nostrae perierit.^[2][6] The TLL notes that Cicero uses it mostly of philosophy.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant love of learning and letters, literary study and erudition.^[1][2][7] Cicero's son writes of a rhetorician whose company joined jest with learning,^[6] and Vitruvius says that the kings of Pergamum, drawn by the delights of learning, founded a library, and calls Homer the leader of all literature.^[6][2] Seneca set it against philosophy, as learning pursued for its own sake: quae philosophia fuit, facta philologia est, “what was philosophy has become philology”.^[1][7] Petronius makes the boastful Trimalchio say that one must know some learning even at dinner.^[6]

Martianus Capella made Philologia a maiden who marries Mercury in his allegory of the seven liberal arts, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii,^[6] and medieval writers in Britain such as John of Salisbury and Peter of Blois kept her as a personification of learning.^[8] Petrarch gave the title Philologia to a comedy of his, and humanists used the word for philology itself: Dorp in 1513 mocked a mere philology of rare words, and Vives wrote of it in 1531.^[9] English first used it as a personification in Chaucer, about 1395, and in the sense of literary scholarship from 1614.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of his and Atticus' studies.^[2][6][4]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius calls Homer the leader of all literature.^[6][2][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca contrasts it with philosophy.^[1][7][4]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella personifies it as the bride of Mercury.^[6][4]
• about 1395 – Chaucer uses it in English as a personification.^[5]
• 1513 – The humanist Dorp uses it of the study of words.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Love of learning or letters, literary study, erudition.^[1][2][7]
2. Learning as an academic exercise, as opposed to philosophy; the explanation of authors.^[1][7]
3. (personified) Philologia, Learning, the bride of Mercury in Martianus Capella.^[6][8]
4. (New Latin) philology.^[9]

Related words

• philologus
• English philology

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de