[fi-lol-uh-jee] 
| 1. | the study of literary texts and of written records, the establishment of their authenticity and their original form, and the determination of their meaning. |
| 2. | (esp. in older use) linguistics, esp. historical and comparative linguistics. |
| 3. | Obsolete. the love of learning and literature. |
[fil-uh-loj-i-kuhl] , phil⋅o⋅log⋅ic, adjective | historical linguistics n. (used with a sing. verb) The study of linguistic change over time in language or in a particular language or language family, sometimes including the reconstruction of unattested forms of earlier stages of a language. Also called philology. |
| phi·lol·o·gy (fĭ-lŏl'ə-jē) n.
[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.] phi·lol'o·ger, phi·lol'o·gist n., phil'o·log'ic (fĭl'ə-lŏj'ĭk), phil'o·log'i·cal (-ĭ-kəl) adj., phil'o·log'i·cal·ly adv. |
philology
a term now rarely used but once applied to the study of language and literature. Nowadays a distinction is usually made between literary and linguistic scholarship, and the term philology, where used, means the study of language-i.e., linguistics (q.v.). It survives in the titles of a few learned journals that date to the 19th century. Comparative philology was a former name for what is now called comparative linguistics (q.v.).
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