This paper centres on lexical variations across languages and across time using the theories of collocational networks and collocational resonance. The word 'paysage' serves as a starting point to observe the evolution of landscape words in four Romance languages – French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian – from both a diachronic and a synchronic perspective. Data from several dictionaries, beginning with 16 th century French dictionaries, indicate that earliest usage of 'paysage' is related to painting. From French, the word spread to Spanish (paisaje), in which it has been recorded in dictionaries since the early 18 th century and is again related fundamentally to painting. The corresponding word in Italian, paesaggio, on the other hand, is much more sparsely represented in Italian lexicography, and in Romanian, peisaj does not appear until the 19 th century under a combined French and Italian influence. In our paper, we use the collocations for 'paysage' to show how collocational networks is a proper framework for analysing and comparing lexical development across languages and for identifying – and representing – nuances in meaning and usage over time.