The origins of the term “phraseology”1

Most researchers associate the beginnings of phraseological studies with Charles Bally (1909) and Soviet studies, especially with V. V. Vinogradov (e.g. 1944; 2001 [1947]), and with English and German studies (e.g. Burger 1973; Rothkegel 1973). However, this article will show that phraseology actually has a centuries-long tradition, at least as far as some languages, including Italian, are concerned. For example, for the Spanish historical phraseological tradition it is worth mentioning Montoro del Arco (2012) and Olímpio de Oliveira Silva (2020). As the Spanish tradition has already been much studied, it will not be further investigated in this paper, although some Spanish “historical phraseologiae” have also been found (such as in the Italian-Spanish works by Franciosini 1620 and the plurilingual work by Pielat 1673). First, I will briefly show what “phraseology” means according to a modern conception, and what it meant originally. The development of the term is traced using some old rediscovered “phraseologiae”, which also have relevance to phraseography and phraseodidactics.