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    • Nomenclature in the 6th century

    Posts: 739
    edited May 2013 in Technique and Theory
    I'm wondering how many items, just a rough guess, would be on a list of all the terms used in and around typography, with at least one meaning, in 6 centuries. That would include all the non-English terms, translated into English and added, if unique to the list. . . 7,000? 10,000? 30,000!???

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    • Posts: 1,459
      Many more than six centuries past ;-)
    • Posts: 425
      David, it's my understanding that the Visigoths and Vandals, who were big items in the 6th century, would cut out the tongues of anyone heard using typographic terminology. Back then, a "wayzgoose" still had something to do with roasting geese. "Type drawers" were a kind of underwear.
    • Posts: 739
      Not in the 6th century, ya Vandal, in this, the 6th century of type...;)
    • Posts: 3,359
      Perhaps an easier question to answer would be how many typographic terms have only one meaning. I reckon that's a pretty short list.
    • Posts: 2,257
      There are 1830 entries in Typowiki.
      Not being a lexicographer, I’d be reluctant to hazard a guess on six centuries and hundreds of languages.
    • Posts: 280
      I have an old Dictionary of Printing Terms with 4005 entries. That is more than just typography: editing, layout, repro, printing, collating, binding, etc. And 30,000 different words sounds too many—do I remember right that that's the lot in Shakespeare's English?

      I'm going with 2013 words, and then one new one each year.
    • Posts: 739
      " I’d be reluctant to hazard a guess "

      I'll insure you for up to 30 seconds.

      "...how many typographic terms have only one meaning."

      "Punch" has only one meaning as a noun, and one as a verb, which is pretty good after 6 c.

      And "later", I think, has also been universally agreed upon throughout?

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