‘Most of our termes now vsed in warres are deriued from straungers’: Robert Barret’s Glossary of Military Terms inThe Theorike and Practike of Moderne Warres (1598)

Abstract

Abstract The first English dictionary of military terms was published anonymously in 1702 under the title AMilitary Dictionary. However, one glossary of this nature had already been attached to Robert Barret’s (Anon. 1702)The Theorike and Practike of Moderne Warres in 1598: ‘A Table, shewing the signification of sundry forraine words, vsed in these discourses’. Barret had fought in many battles in Europe, where English soldiers came into contact with comrades-in-arms from other countries. Hence, Barret’s glossary constitutes a first-hand source of information on the loanwords used in English to refer to technological and strategic novelties on the field of military science at the time. This article (i) provides a first analysis of Barret’s glossary; (ii) confirms that Barret’s professional expertise as a soldier contributed to more complete and informative definitions than the ones in contemporary general dictionaries; (iii) compares the source languages Barret assigned to the entries in his glossary with the source languages specified in contemporary lexicographical works and in the Oxford English Dictionary; and (iv) confirms the relevance of Barret’s glossary as a testimony to the military jargon incorporated into English from different languages during the sixteenth century. Finally, a close comparison of the definitions of the same entries in Barret’s glossary and Florio’s A Worlde of Wordes (1598) has revealed Florio’s indebtedness to Barret’s military glossary.