sematology
(siː-, sɛməˈtɒlədʒɪ)
[f. Gr. σηµατ-, σῆµα sign + -logy.]
1. Used by Smart for: The doctrine of the use of ‘signs’ (esp. words) in relation to thought and knowledge.
| 1831 [Smart] Outline of Sematology 1 If we might call the whole body of instruction which acquaints us with τὰ ϕυσικά by the name Physicology, and that which teaches τὰ πρακτικά by the name Practicology,—all instruction for the use of τὰ σήµατα, or the signs of our knowledge, might be called Sematology. 1839 Smart Way out 40 Sematology, or the doctrine of the relation of lingual signs to thought. |
2. = semasiology.
| 1880 Sayce Sci. Lang. I. (Contents-table) Chapter IV. The Physiology and Semasiology of Speech (Phonology and Sematology). Ibid. iv. 336 But by its very nature a science of meanings, sematology, as it has been named, can never have the same certitude, the same exactness, as a science of sounds. 1884 J. A. H. Murray in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1882–4, 511 The writing of the Morphology, and of the Sematology, must go hand in hand. |
Hence sematoˈlogical a. rare.
| 1882 J. A. H. Murray Let. 27 Mar. in K. M. E. Murray Caught in Web of Words (1977) x. 190 All that you urge against phonetic statements, can be urged with far greater force against sematological ones. |