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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lexicology

Lexicology \Lex`i*col"o*gy\ (l[e^]ks`[i^]*k[o^]l"[-o]*j[y^]), n. The science of the derivation and signification of words; that branch of learning which treats of the signification and application of words.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lexicology

1828, from lexico- + -logy.

Wiktionary
lexicology

n. 1 (context uncountable linguistics English) The part of linguistics that studies words, their nature and meaning, words' elements, relations between words including semantic relations, words groups and the whole lexicon. 2 (context countable English) A specific theory concerning the lexicon.

WordNet
lexicology

n. the branch of linguistics that studies the lexical component of language

Wikipedia
Lexicology

Lexicology is the part of linguistics which studies words. This may include their nature and function as symbols, their meaning, the relationship of their meaning to epistemology in general, and the rules of their composition from smaller elements ( morphemes such as the English -ed marker for past or un- for negation; and phonemes as basic sound units). Lexicology also involves relations between words, which may involve semantics (for example, love vs. affection), derivation (for example, fathom vs. unfathomably), use and sociolinguistic distinctions (for example, flesh vs. meat), and any other issues involved in analyzing the whole lexicon of a language.

The term first appeared in the 1970s, though there were lexicologists in essence before the term was coined. Computational lexicology as a related field (in the same way that computational linguistics is related to linguistics) deals with the computational study of dictionaries and their contents.

An allied science to lexicology is lexicography, which also studies words, but primarily in relation with dictionaries – it is concerned with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that perspective with the whole lexicon. Sometimes lexicography is considered to be a part or a branch of lexicology, but properly speaking, only lexicologists who actually write dictionaries are lexicographers. Some consider this a distinction of theory vs. practice.