FARMACI A PICCOLE DOSI: LA SCIENZA MEDICA NEI PRIMI DIZIONARI INGLESI

Abstract

This essay examines the role of lexicography in the popularisation of medical terminology in seventeenth-century England. As a matter of fact, the compilation of the earliest monolingual English dictionaries proceeded side by side with the birth and early development of modern science. After sketching the lexicographical tradition of the so-called hard-word dictionaries and commenting on how these works were involved in the popularisation of science, and especially scientific terminology, in the seventeenth century, this essay focuses on all the medical entries in the very first monolingual English dictionary, Robert Cawdrey’s A table alphabeticall of 1604.