GLOSS, GLOSSARY, &c. The Greek word [Greek: glôssa] (whence our "gloss"), meaning originally a tongue, then a language or dialect, gradually came to denote any obsolete, foreign, provincial, technical or otherwise peculiar word or use of a word (see Arist. _Rhet._ iii. 3. 2). The making of collections and explanations[1] of such [Greek: glôssai] was at a comparatively early date a well-recognized form of literary activity. Even in the 5th century B.C., among the many writings of Abdera was included a treatise entitled [Greek: Peri Homêrou ê orthoepeiês kai glôsseôn]. It was not, however, until the Alexandrian period that the [Greek: glôssographoi], glossographers (writers of glosses), or glossators, became numerous. Of many of these perhaps even the names have perished; but Athenaeus the grammarian alone (c. A.D. 250) alludes to no fewer than thirty-five. Among the earliest was Philetas of Cos (d. c. 290 B.C.), the elegiac poet, to whom Aristarchus dedicated the treatise [Greek: Pros Philptan]; he was the compiler of a lexicographical work, arranged probably according to subjects, and entitled [Greek: Hatakta] or [Greek: Glôssai] (sometimes [Greek: Ataktoi glôssai]). Next came his disciple Zenodotus of Ephesus (c. 280 B.C.), one of the earliest of the Homeric critics and the compiler of [Greek: Glôssai Homêrikai]; Zenodotus in turn was succeeded by his greater pupil Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 200 B.C.), whose great compilation [Greek: Peri lexeôn] (still partially preserved in that of Pollux), is known to have included [Greek: Attikai lexeis, Lakônikai glôssai], and the like. From the school of Aristophanes issued more than one glossographer of name,--Diodorus, Artemidorus ([Greek: Glôssai], and a collection of [Greek: lexeis opsartutikai]), Nicander of Colophon ([Greek: Glôssai], of which some twenty-six fragments still survive), and Aristarchus (c. 210 B.C.), the famous critic, whose numerous labours included an arrangement of the Homeric vocabulary ([Greek: lexeis]) in the order of the books. Contemporary with the last named was Crates of Mallus, who, besides making some new contributions to Greek lexicography and dialectology, was the first to create at Rome a taste for similar investigations in connexion with the Latin idioms. From his school proceeded Zenodotus of Mallus, the compiler of [Greek: Ethnikai lexeis] or [Greek: glôssai], a work said to have been designed chiefly to support the views of the school of Pergamum as to the allegorical interpretation of Homer.[2] Of later date were Didymus (Chalcenterus, c. 50 B.C.), who made collections of [Greek: lexeis tragôdoumenai kômikai], &c.; Apollonius Sophista (c. 20 B.C.), whose Homeric Lexicon has come down to modern times; and Neoptolemus, known distinctively as [Greek: ho glôssographos]. In the beginning of the 1st century of the Christian era Apion, a grammarian and rhetorician at Rome during the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, followed up the labours of Aristarchus and other predecessors with [Greek: Glôssai Homêrikai], and a treatise [Greek: Peri tês Hrômaïkês dialekton]; Heliodorus or Herodorus was another almost contemporary glossographer; Erotian also, during the reign of Nero, prepared a special glossary for the writings of Hippocrates, still preserved. To this period also Pamphilus, the author of the [Greek: Leimôn], from which Diogenian and Julius Vestinus afterwards drew so largely, most probably belonged. In the following century one of the most prominent workers in this department of literature was Aelius Herodianus, whose treatise [Greek: Peri monêrous lexeôs] has been edited in modern times, and whose [Greek: Epimerismoi] we still possess in an abridgment; also Pollux, Diogenian ([Greek: Lexis pantodapê]), Julius Vestinus ([Greek: 'Epitomê tôn Pamphilou glôssôn]) and especially Phrynichus, who flourished towards the close of the 2nd century, and whose _Eclogae nominum et verborum Atticorum_ has frequently been edited. To the 4th century belongs Ammonius of Alexandria (c. 389), who wrote [Greek: Peri Homoiôn kai diaphorôn lexeôn], a dictionary of words used in senses different from those in which they had been employed by older and approved writers. Of somewhat later date is the well-known Hesychius, whose often-edited [Greek: Lexikon] superseded all previous works of the kind; Cyril, the celebrated patriarch of Alexandria, also contributed somewhat to the advancement of glossography by his [Greek: Sunagôgê tôn pros diaphoron sêmasian diaphorôs tonoumenôn lexeôn]; while Orus, Orion, Philoxenus and the two Philemons also belong to this period.