A gloss can be an explanatory note.
The etymological journey of the term gloss begins in the Greek word glôssa , which translates as “tongue.” From there it went to late Latin glossa , which refers to a concept that needs explanation .
A gloss, therefore, can be a note - generally brief - that is written in the margin of a text or even between its lines with the intention of clarifying some idea of it. Many times the gloss refers to the meaning that an expression or paragraph has in its original language.
This shows us that the complexity of the glosses is very variable, since it depends on the characteristics of the text that must be explained, the knowledge that the author has to do his job and the depth with which he wishes to clarify. It may be a mere literal translation or an elaborate and extensive text, with references to similar ones.
Concepts related to the term gloss
The set of glosses that refer to the same text or the texts of a certain author is known as a glossary . The individual who glosses (that is, who is in charge of glossing), meanwhile, is called a glossator .
This is perhaps one of those curious cases in which two associated terms - in fact, belonging to the same family - do not enjoy the same degree of popularity in everyday speech: while many people know and use the word glossary , only a few are familiar with glossa .
It can be said that a gloss is an interpretation or explanation of a text that is carried out with the aim of making it easier to understand. The gloss may try to state the same thing as the original text, although in a different way, clearer or with indications that are useful for a full understanding of the contents.
The meaning of gloss varies according to the context.
The notion in religion and law
For biblical theology of the Middle Ages, the word gloss represents one of the most common genres, which often had to be studied by heart. On many occasions, biblical passages were associated with certain glosses that theologians considered to be of unquestionable veracity.
A similar phenomenon took place in the field of laws of the time, where many glosses on canon law and Roman law acquired great importance, becoming authentic points of reference grouped under the name support of the subject (in Latin , this concept is written headquarters materiae ). Some of the best known are the Apostilles of the Franciscan Nicolás de Lira and Magna glossatura in Psalmos , belonging to the 12th and 14th centuries, respectively.
It is important to keep in mind that at the time these glosses were used, scholars did not have access to a large number of books, as is the case today; On the contrary, their readings were much less, although this did not mean that they carried them out with great care and thoroughness. The decline of the gloss and its subsequent disappearance took place with the arrival of the printing press, which allowed the mass copying of all those volumes that until then could not be widely distributed.
Gloss in literature and music
In the field of literature , a gloss is a poem that, at the end of its stanzas, allows the entry with meaning and rhyme of other verses that were previously proposed. The successive lines of one poem, in this way, serve as the final lines of the stanzas of another poem.
For music , finally, the gloss is the variation or ornamentation that a musician performs of a certain melody. In these cases, the performer works on certain notes although he is not strictly tied to them.