[mod. f. L. termin-us, in its med.L. sense ‘term’ + -LOGY: used in Ger. 1786 by Prof. C. G. Schütz of Jena: see Kant’s Briefwechsel (1900), I. 446; so terminologisch, 1788.] Etymologically, The doctrine or scientific study of terms; in use almost always, The system of terms belonging to any science or subject; technical terms collectively; nomenclature.
1770. Bielfeld, Univ. Erudition, I. 280. The terminology of alchimy is altogether as absurd as its object.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 567. Mr. Nemnich, of Hamburg, will shortly publish a complete Nosological Dictionary…. It is to consist of two parts, in the first of which the Latin terminology will be given, and in the second, the dictionary of the above languages, relating to diseases, with a Latin explanation.
1815. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), I. Pref. 11. In the terminology or what, to avoid the barbarism of a word compounded of Latin and Greek, they would beg to call the orismology of the science.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), III. 258. I designate as Terminology the system of terms employed in the description of objects of natural history.
1847. Lewes, Hist. Philos. (1867), II. 452. Kant, who … gave old ideas a novelty by giving them a new terminology.
1854. S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (1861), 146. Some knowledge … of botanical terms—Terminology—is requisite.
1880. Huxley, Crayfish, 14. Every calling has its technical terminology.
Hence Terminological a., pertaining to terminology (whence Terminologically adv.); Terminologist, one versed in terminology.
1861. F. Winslow, Obscure Dis. Brain & Mind, iii. (ed. 2), 36. Who can only distinguish terminologically and locally the coarser wheels of this piece of intellectual clockwork.
1894. Pall Mall G., 1 Nov., 3/1. A winding road ankle deep in mud … called Orchard-street. Why an orchard was so persistently associated with this God-forsaken region is a question a terminologist only can answer.
1906. W. Churchill, Sp. Ho. Com., 22 Feb. It could not … be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word, without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
1907. Month, July, 57. Lynx-eyed censors, keenly on the look out for the least hint of terminological inexactitude.
