glossology

noun

Etymology: From Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, “tongue; language”) + -ology.

1. The science of language; linguistics.

   “Erudition has been divided by a German professor into glossology, bibliology and historiology; or a knowledge of languages, a knowlege^([sic – meaning knowledge]) of languages, a knowlege of books, and a knowlege of facts.”

   “If all nations spoke one and the same language, much of the time now spent in the study of Glossology, would be saved.”

2. The naming of parts of plants.

   “A plant in flower, surveyed externally, may be perceived to be composed of a variety of obvious parts, such as the root, the stem, the branch, the leaf, the flower, the fruit, and perhaps the seed; and other parts less obvious, as buds, prickles, tendils, hairs, glands, &c. These, with their modifications, and all the relative circumstances which enter into the botanical description of a plant, constitute the subject of glossology, the details of which, involving the definition of some hundreds of terms, are here omitted; because to those conversant to them it would be of little use, and those who have them still to learn will find it more convenient to have recourse to some elementary work, where most of them are illustrated by figures.”

   “I beg leave to differ from you in printing the etymology of names that are from the Greek in English, and not in Greek letters. I think they would answer the end in view much better if they were in Greek characters; it would be far more conducive to a general knowledge of botanical glossology, and a greater stimulus to the student.”

3. The definition and explanation of terms in constructing a glossary.

   “If the indexed items (E3) are core terms for descriptive glossology (C4), they are underlined, and their definitions will be found in Annex V, in a record indicated by the notation preceding the index term.”

   “And in the sanctified, post-exorcist intercourse which leads to conception, Margrethe appears 'obediently', speaking in initiated, divine tongues, interpreted by 'the friends': glossology.”

4. The diagnosis of disease by examination of the tongue.

   “To those who doubt the value of a well-defined system of Glossology I would say—let them account for the different appearances of the tongue in scarlet-fever and measles: why in the former it is red, and in the latter limaceous, or white; […]”

   “He [Benjamin Ridge] professes to have reduced the examination of the tongue for purposes of diagnosis to a system. […] [H]e describes the dyspeptic, febrile, inflammatory, cerebral, rheumatic, pulmonary and cardiac tongue, &c., and he argues that the nature and seat of diseases may be detected and discriminated by cultivating this new science of glossology, even when neither the other physical or rational signs are suffcient for a true diagnosis.”