-ology, -logy, -ologist, -logist

(Greek: a suffix meaning: to talk, to speak; a branch of knowledge; any science or academic field that ends in -ology which is a variant of -logy; a person who speaks in a certain manner; someone who deals with certain topics or subjects)

The word -ology is a back-formation from the names of certain disciplines. The -logy element basically means "the study of ____". Such words are formed from Greek or Latin roots with the terminal -logy derived from the Greek suffix -λογια (-logia), speaking, from λεγειν (legein), "to speak".

The suffix -ology is considered to be misleading sometimes as when the "o" is actually part of the word stem that receives the -logy ending; such as, bio + logy.

Through the years -ology and -logy have come to mean, "study of" or "science of" and either of these suffixes often utilize the form of -ologist, "one who (whatever the preceding element refers to)".

The examples shown in this unit represent just a small fraction of the many words that exist in various dictionaries.

ontology
ontology, ontological, ontologically, ontologist
The philosophical study of the nature of being.
ontotheology (s) (noun), ontotheologies (pl)
The cognition or knowing, perceiving, reasoning, and judging of a Supreme Being from bare conceptions: "Ontotheology is a tradition of philosophical theology which was prominent among medieval scholastics; in other words, the study of the nature of being, existence, or reality."
onychology
The medical study of the nails and their disorders.
onychopathology (s) (noun) (no pl)
The study of disorders of the nails; onychology: Jill read that the outdated term onychopathology, relating to the science of finger and toe nails, was not used any more in the working medical language.

The dermatologist that Mary went to said that the formal discipline of onychopathology did research in the past on the kind of ailment she had regarding her nails becoming dry, yellowish, and cracking.

oologist
oology
ophidology
The biology or study of snakes.
ophiologist
1. A specialist in the study of snakes.
2. Someone who is versed in the natural history of serpents.
ophiology (s) (noun) (no pl)
1. The study of snakes: There was one branch of zoology at Tom’s college called ophiology, where he learned about the long, scaly, and limbless reptiles, some of which were venomous or poisonous!
2. That part of natural history dealing with serpents: In a magazine about the environment, there was an article about ophiology, which interested Linda very much because her hobby was learning as much as possible about all kinds of snakes.
The study of serpents or snakes.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

ophiotoxicology
1. The study of snake venom.
2. The toxicology of snake venoms.
ophthalmologist (s) (noun), ophthalmologists (pl)
1. A physician who specializes in the care and treatment of the eyes: Marie was having trouble seeing things clearly from long distances so she made an appointment with an ophthalmologist to get the kind of eyeglasses that would help her have better vision.
2. Etymology: from Greek opthalmos, “eye" + -logia, "the study of".
A trained person who is a specialist in the treatment of eye defects.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

ophthalmology
1. The medical and surgical specialty of eye care, including treatment of diseases of the eye and the correction of refractive errors.
2. The branch of health science dealing with the eye, including its anatomy, physiology, pathology, and other aspects.
opsonology (s), opsonologies (pl) (noun forms)
The science of opsonins or the study of the process in which antibodies make cells or microorganisms more susceptible to the engulfing or covering action of phagocytes which are types of cella in the body which can surround things and swallow them; especially, white blood cells that protect the body against infection by destroying bacteria.
orchidology
The study of orchids (flowers).
Cross references of word families related directly, or indirectly, to: "talk, speak, speech; words, language; tongue, etc.": cit-; clam-; dic-; fa-; -farious; glosso-; glotto-; lalo-; linguo-; locu-; logo-; loqu-; mythico-; ora-; -phasia; -phemia; phon-; phras-; Quotes: Language,Part 1; Quotes: Language, Part 2; Quotes: Language, Part 3; serm-; tongue; voc-.