One of my main interests is astronomical terminology and nomenclature and how these have varied through time, especially in the English language (I have been Astronomy Adviser to the Oxford English Dictionary since May 1995. I am Editor-in-Chief of Springer's Dictionary< of astronomy/i>, which is now being compiled as is expected to be published in 2009.

By tracing the life stories of terms and the different senses in which they are used, it is possible to treat the astronomical lexicon as a stratified archaeological site and to consider individual terms as mental artefacts; in fact, one may speak of an archaeology of the astronomical lexicon - not merely a closed study of dead words, but the monitoring of a live organism with a past and present.

Astrolexicography enables us to trace the evolution of of the astronomical lexicon and to determine the linguistic role of terminology and nomenclature. By applying the findings of modern linguistics to the problem of terminology we can avoid falling into the trap of trying to "standardize" terms and usage (an impossibility given that terminology is part of the living language). Nomenclature (the naming of things in a given field), however, is much more restricted in its linguistic properties since it involves only nouns and adjectives: unlike terminology, nomenclature can (and indeed should) be normalized in any field of study.

I have written the following articles on various aspects of astronomical lexicography:

• Mahoney, T. J. 1996, `La lexicografia astronomica: Llamar a las cosas por su nombre?', IAC Noticias, 1996-1, pp. 54-5.
• Mahoney, T. J. 1998, `Historical astrolexicography and old publications', in ASP Conference Series, Volume 153, Library and Information Services in Astronomy III (LISA III), edited by U. Grothkopf, H. Andernach, S. Stevens-Rayburn and M. Gomez (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific), pp. 218-223.
• Mahoney,  T. J. 2000, `Historical lexicography and the astronomical lexicon', in Oxford VI and SEAC 99: Astronomy and Cultural Diversity, edited by C. Esteban and J. A. Belmonte (La Laguna: Museo de la Ciencia y el  Cosmos), pp. 239-243.
• Mahoney,  T. J. 2005, `Dictionaries: what the lexicographer's art can do for astronomy', in Communicating Astronomy, edited by T. J. Mahoney (La Laguna: Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias), pp. 95-100.