[German version]

A. The ancient concept of ‘Glosses’

Glosses (γλῶσσαι; glôssai) are words that are rare and difficult to explain. The Greeks' interest in such words dates back to the earliest periods: even in works of archaic and classical poets, glosses were accompanied by more common synonyms (‘glossarial synonymity’); this kind of ‘self-exegesis’ is perhaps already evident in the first two verses of the Odyssey (Hom. Od. 1.1-2).

 Antisthenes [1] and the Sophists saw the exact interpretation of words as the root of all teaching (παίδευσις, p…