In late classical and medieval Latin, _glosa_ was the vulgar and romanic (e.g. in the early 8th century Corpus Glossary, and the late 8th century Leiden Glossary), _glossa_ the learned form (Varro, _De ling. Lat._ vii. 10; Auson. _Epigr_. 127. 2 (86. 2), written in Greek, Quint, i. 1. 34). The diminutive _glossula_ occurs in Diom. 426. 26 and elsewhere. The same meaning has _glossarium_ (Gell. xviii. 7. 3 _glosaria_ = [Greek: glôssarion]), which also occurs in the modern sense of "glossary" (Papias, "unde _glossarium_ dictum quod omnium fere partium glossas contineat"), as do the words _glossa_, _glossae_, _glossulae_, _glossemata_ (Steinmeyer, _Alth. Gloss._ iv. 408, 410), expressed in later times by _dictionarium_, _dictionarius_, _vocabularium_, _vocabularius_ (see DICTIONARY). _Glossa_ and _glossema_ (Varro vii. 34. 107; Asinius Gallus, ap. Suet. _De gramm._ 22; Fest. 166^b. 8, 181^a. 18; Quint. i. 8. 15, &c.) are synonyms, signifying (a) the word which requires explanation; or (b) such a word (called _lemma_) together with the interpretation (_interpretamentum_); or (c) the interpretation alone (so first in the _Anecd. Helv._).
Latin, like Greek glossography, had its origin chiefly in the practical wants of students and teachers, of whose names we only know a few. No doubt even in classical times collections of glosses ("glossaries") were compiled, to which allusion seems to be made by Varro (_De ling. Lat._ vii. 10, "tesca, aiunt sancta esse qui glossas scripserunt") and Verrius-Festus (166^b .6, "naucum ... glossematorum ... scriptures fabae grani quod haereat in fabulo"), but it is not known to what extent Varro, for instance, used them, or retained their original forms. The _scriptores glossematorum_ were distinguished from the learned glossographers like Aurelius Opilius (cf. his _Musae_, ap. Suet. _De gramm._ 6; Gell. i. 25. 17; Varro vii. 50, 65, 67, 70, 79, 106), Servius Clodius (Varro vii. 70. 106), Aelius Stilo, L. Ateius Philol., whose _liber glossematorum_ Festus mentions (181^{ a}.18).
Verrius Flaccus and his epitomists, Festus and Paulus, have preserved many treasures of early glossographers who are now lost to us. He copied Aelius Stilo (Reitzenstein, "Verr. Forsch.," in vol. i. of _Breslauer philol. Abhandl._, p. 88; Kriegshammer, _Comm. phil. Ien._ vii. 1. 74 sqq.), Aurelius Opilius, Ateius Philol., the treatise _De obscuris Catonis_ (Reitzenstein, ib. 56. 92). He often made use of Varro (Willers, _De Verrio Flacco_, Halle, 1898), though not of his _ling. lat._ (Kriegshammer, 74 sqq.); and was also acquainted with later glossographers. Perhaps we owe to him the _glossae asbestos_ (Goetz, _Corpus_, iv.; _id., Rhein. Mus._ xl. 328). Festus was used by Ps.-Philoxenus (Dammann, "De Festo Ps.-Philoxeni auctore," _Comm. Ien._ v. 26 sqq.), as appears from the _glossae ab absens_ (Goetz, "De Astrabae Pl. fragmentis," _Ind. Ien._, 1893, iii. sqq.). The distinct connexions with Nonius need not be ascribed to borrowing, as Plinius and Caper may have been used (P. Schmidt, _De Non. Marc. auctt. gramm._ 145; Nettleship, _Lect. and Ess._ 229; Fröhde, _De Non. Marc. et Verrio Flacco_, 2; W. M. Lindsay, "Non. Marc.," _Dict. of Repub. Latin_, 100, &c.).