philology

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English philologie, from Latin philologia, from Ancient Greek φιλολογίᾱ (philologíā, “love of argument or reasoning, love of learning and literature”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɒl.ə.d͡ʒɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɔl.ə.d͡ʒi/

Noun

 philology on Wikipedia

philology (countable and uncountable, plural philologies)

1. The humanistic study of language.

   Meronyms: see Thesaurus:philology

   • 2016, Alan Kim, “Paul Natorp”, in Edward N. Zalta, editor, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy‎:

     […] his early philosophical studies converged with his original love of philology as he pursued the “prehistory” of Kantian critique in Descartes, Galileo, and Copernicus, back to Plato.

2. (uncommon) Linguistics.
3. (philosophy) Love and study of learning and literature, broadly speaking.
   • a. 1662, Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England

     Indeed philology properly is terse and polite learning...; being that florid skill containing only the roses of learning, without the prickles thereof, in which narrow sense thorny philosophy is discharged, as no part of philology. But we take it in the larger notion, as inclusive of all human liberal studies...

4. (culture) Scholarship and culture, particularly classical, literary and linguistic.
   • 1968, John Paul Pritchard, On Interpretation and Criticism, University of Oklahoma Press:

     Philology and philosophy are treated as reciprocal. They exist on equal footing, and neither functions satisfactorily without the other. Their methods ... are opposite; philology attains to knowledge through induction, whereas philosophy starts from a concept. To formulate his concepts soundly, the philosopher needs an adequate fund of knowledge or data; too many philosophers ... lack a basis in knowledge or tradition

Derived terms

Related terms

• logophilia

Translations

See also

• classical studies
• higher criticism
• linguistics
• literary criticism
• lower criticism
• philosophy
• textual criticism

References

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “philology”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “philology”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “philology”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “philology”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “philology”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “philology” (US) / “philology” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “philology”, in Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
• "philology" in WordNet 3.1, Princeton University, 2011.
• “philology” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.
• philology, britannica.com
• Philology, encyclopedia.com
• philology, linguistics at Google Ngram Viewer
• LINGUIST List 9.741: Philology vs. Linguistics, linguistlist.org
• The Disciplinarity of Linguistics and Philology
• What is the difference between philology and linguistics?, askphilosophers.org