Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Literary study or classical scholarship.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The love or the study of learning and literature; the investigation of a language and its literature, or of languages and literatures, for the light they cast upon men's character, activity, and history.

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

  • noun rare Criticism; grammatical learning.
  • noun The study of language, especially in a philosophical manner and as a science; the investigation of the laws of human speech, the relation of different tongues to one another, and historical development of languages; linguistic science.
  • noun A treatise on the science of language.

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

  • noun linguistics The humanistic study of historical linguistics.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the humanistic study of language and literature

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English philologie, from Latin philologia, love of learning, from Greek philologiā, from philologos, fond of learning or of words : philo-, philo- + logos, reason, speech; see –logy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First coined 1614, from Old French philologie, from Ancient Greek φιλολογία (philologia, "love of argument or reasoning, love of learning and literature"), from φίλος (philos, "loved, beloved, dear, friend") + λόγος (logos).

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Examples

  • One day a fellow-student, who pleased himself with what he called philology, remarked that his father must have been a hit of a humorist to name him Peregrine: -- "except indeed it be a family name!" he added.

    What's Mine's Mine — Complete George MacDonald 1864

  • One day a fellow-student, who pleased himself with what he called philology, remarked that his father must have been a hit of a humorist to name him Peregrine: -- "except indeed it be a family name!" he added.

    What's Mine's Mine — Volume 1 George MacDonald 1864

  • After World War II, when I was working on a major in philology at Moscow State University, I chose to study American literature and to analyze the problem of "Jack London as a novelist."

    A Letter From Leading Jack London Scholar in Russia Vil M. Bykov 2010

  • This moment in philology was brought to you by the late J.R.R. Tolkein. gringro

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Do NOT buy the Chinese Elmo 2008

  • He wished to put literary study, which then passed by the name philology, upon a rigorous scientific footing.

    Influence 2009

  • The discussion over at The One Ring, then, seems to be less about the idea of philology, but more about the potential suggestion that those without training in philology should sit down, shut up, and listen to the Annointed Priests of Philology and Literature.

    Archive 2005-11-01 Richard Nokes 2005

  • The discussion over at The One Ring, then, seems to be less about the idea of philology, but more about the potential suggestion that those without training in philology should sit down, shut up, and listen to the Annointed Priests of Philology and Literature.

    Scholars and Fanboys Richard Nokes 2005

  • Jutta Dick has degrees in German philology, history and philosophy.

    Jutta Dick. Jewish Women's Archive 2006

  • How would you characterize his early interest in philology?

    The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: Questions 1998

  • I had taken three years of Russian at Dartmouth and then I got a graduate fellowship in Russian philology at the University of Edinburgh.

    The End of the Line: The Failure of Communism in the Soviet Union and China 1990

Comments

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  • I prefer the Linguistic definition of philology as the branch of knowledge that deals with the structure, historical development, and relationships of a language or languages.

    Friedrich Nietzsche, after losing his faith, became a professor of classical philology.

    September 19, 2023