Abstract

The Diccionari català-valencià-balear (DCVB), initiated by Antoni M. Alcover and finished by Francesc de B. Moll, is a lexicographic compendium devoted to Catalan, which brings together the ancient and the modern language regarding written documentation and all the richness of the dialectal varieties regarding oral surveys. Some of the elements incorporated in the DCVB have received some attention from descriptive works. However, none have delved into the terms of the specialized language that the dictionary includes, whose definition is preceded by abbreviations such as àlg[ebra], arquit[ectura], fís[ica], mecàn[ica], zool[ogía], among others. This work aims to study the presence of some terms of the DCVB that are marked with labels typical of scientific and technical language. Although the fields are diverse (chemistry, law, biology, arithmetic, botany, etc.), the study focuses on a selection of terms, and their corresponding definitions, that are characteristic of the humanities and social sciences. Special emphasis is placed on words with specific meanings, some of which are no longer in use, and which are not present in the normative dictionary of the Institut de Estudis Catalans. It also aims to speculate on the inclusion and documentation criteria that the authors applied