-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.
2. The actions of delirious or semiconscious patients, as if they are searching for or grasping at imaginary objects, or picking at the bed-clothes or their own clotes.
This is a grave symptom in cases of extreme exhaustion or approaching death. Also known as floccillation.
Carphology comes from the Greek karphologia, a compound of the two Greek elements: karphos, "straw", and legeln, "to collect". It means to behave as though one were picking up bits of straw. This refers to the involuntary movements sometimes seen in delirious patients who may be in exhaustion, stupor, or with a high fever.
Most dictionaries that include carphology also refer the user to floccillation which is the Latin equivalent, formed from floccus, "a bit of wool or straw".
"In fact, cereologists devoted books to the wheat-field wonders, and curious tourists flocked to see them; until September 1991, when two 60-something artists came forward to show how they had created the circles at night with lengths of rope and flat boards."
2. Someone who makes the hand a subject of study.
2. The study of the hand.
3. Telling fortunes by lines on the palm of the hand; synonyms: palmistry, palm reading, chiromancy.