Lexicology is a speciality in linguistics dealing with the study of the lexicon .The term first appeared in the 1820's, though obviously there were lexicologists before that.

A good example of lexicology at work, and one everyone is familiar with, is the dictionary or thesaurus. As there are many different types of dictionaries, there are many different types of lexicologists. There are difficulties is working out what simple words such as 'the' mean, and what complicated words mean. Also which words to keep in and which not to include.

Noted Lexicologists:

• Damaso Alonso, (Oct. 22, 1898-) Spanish literary critic and lexicologist
• Roland Barthes, (Nov. 12, 1915-Mar. 25, 1980) French writer, critic and lexicologist
• Dr Samuel Johnson
• Pierre Larousse (1817-1875)
• Noah Webster

Bibliography:

• Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology, (ed. H. Jackson); ISBN 0304703966
• Toward a Functional Lexicology, (ed. G. Wotjak); ISBN 0820435260
• Lexicology, Semantics, and Lexicography, (ed. J. Coleman); ISBN 1556199724

Societies:

• Association for Automatic Language Processing (ATALA), Paris, France http://www.atala.org
• International Training in Communication (ITC) http://www.itcintl.com
• International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Minneapolis, MN http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/aila

Web Links:

• Glossary of linguistic terms http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/index.htm

Compare to Lexicography, Lexeme