Verbum is a thematic lexicon-repertoire of Verist critical language developed within the COVerLeSS project through XML/TEI semantic annotation of reviews, essays, and journal articles published between 1872 and 1890. This paper describes the conceptual and formal structure of Verbum, based on the identification of types, subtypes, main words, and semantic categories, and its formalization in the OntoTerm ontology following Semantic Web paradigms. Through quantitative analysis performed with NormaTEI, the article demonstrates how term annotation enables the analysis of temporal distribution, polysemy, and conceptual density in Verist critical vocabulary. Keywords: digital scholarly editing; XML/TEI; literary critical lexicon; corpus linguistics; formal ontology