Before humanity passed the stage from manuscript to typewriting technology, people of many professions and classes needed glossaries. Strictly speaking, glossaries are lists of foreign and rarely used words that were found in ancient manuscripts, drawings and medical manuals of that time. Glosses are words that were written by a teacher, scientist, or simply a copyist between the lines and even in the margins. Their main function was to clarify the specific meaning of the contextual narrative. When using gloss, it was possible to work with text without special literature, lists and commentaries.
Etymology and Origin
The origin of the word "glossary" goes back to the Latin expression "glossarium", which translates as "glossary collection". In turn, the ancient Greek word "glossa" is translated as "obsolete word" or "dialect expression". Now we can state that the glossary is the first sample of a monolingual dictionary. We can say that this is a list of words difficult to interpret and accurately convey the meaning of the words of any text. Moreover, the main texts that were so important for understanding were the cult and cultural writings of the time. For example, in Ancient Greece, Alexandrian scholars created a glossary for the works of Homer, and during the Middle Ages a glossary was created for the monuments of Roman literature that were preserved at that time. A specific characteristic of the glossary is that, due to the development of writing, it has become a kind of predecessor of modern dictionaries, therefore glossaries and dictionaries cannot be considered separately from each other.
The history of the development of glossaries in Russia
Having plunged into the history of the issue, we learn that the glossaries were the first experience of compilation work, combining disparate knowledge on a specific narrow topic of one or several related topics. Using the example of glossaries that corresponded and published in Ancient Russia, we can project and understand by what principle and requirements they were written, in which areas of life they were needed.
Examples of glossaries in Russia
Among the number of glossaries of the editions of the XII-XVI centuries, the following types of collections are distinguished:
- “Onomasticons” - a collection or collection of names used to name children in a specific geographical area, subordinate territory, or on another social or religious basis. Otherwise, they were called "names". Nowadays, this genre of name collection has an extended range of information content compared to its predecessor and may contain information that classifies the names of a particular nationality, various historical periods or even names in a separate literary work.
- “Selling dictionaries” are collections of words that contain a certain symbolic or allegorical meaning. In Russia, the dominant channel of allegory and the context in which these meanings were interpreted was Orthodoxy in the life of a contemporary of this glossary. In the vocabulary dictionary were collected divine names, words used both by the people and in the Holy Scriptures, interpreted and gaining a clear interpretation.
- "Slavic-Russian dictionaries." This category of glossaries (dictionaries) includes the first printed dictionary, the date of occurrence of which is called 1596. It was an appendix to the grammar of the already well-known clergyman Lorenius Zizania at that time, whose work contained 1,061 words. This dictionary describes the meanings of Old Slavonic words, which, apparently, have already begun to take on other meanings or lose their meaning among the people.
Describing the milestones of the development of writing in the glossaries, we see that the glossary is a servant of the people who fulfill a much-needed historical role. Among the functions that the glossary performed at that time, the main ones can be distinguished:
- interpretation of religious texts;
- teaching the basics of religion (maintaining a cult);
- preservation of the cultural, including linguistic heritage of its people.
Types of Modern Glossaries
The modern world has invented the following types of lists, called glossaries, among which:
- linguistic;
- specialized;
- thematic;
- technical;
- scientific;
- specialized.
Description of the most popular glossaries in modern society
In the era of the technocratic world, the last three types of glossaries from this list were most popular. The technical glossary contains the interpretation of general terms and expressions for a particular production or industry cycle. The need for the existence of this list is not in doubt, because technology, discipline of work and unity of concepts when creating are as necessary as the availability of project financing.
The next in importance is the scientific glossary, which gives the exact measured values, the scientific formulation and the precise statement of scientific principles. The principle of science is the principle of unity of the information field. It is impossible to imagine scientists who argue about how many grams are in a kilogram of weight. Last on this list is a specialized glossary or glossary of highly specialized terms. This is a very narrow dictionary, which is intended for specialists of a certain profile. It must necessarily contain, in addition to interpreting the meaning of the term, a detailed commentary on it, and in the best editions also a translation from a foreign language with examples.
Conclusion
Summing up a brief summary and moving on to thinking and comprehending what was read, one cannot but mention that we saw the path of the human mind. How he collects information, processes, uses all the resources that are available to him in order to transfer the accumulated knowledge to a new generation. Therefore, a glossary is not just a list. Rather, it is a reflection of the universal desire to develop and preserve what surrounds it. Undoubtedly, this is the best of human qualities.