-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.

carphology, carphologia, carphologies (pl); also, carphologias
1. In medicine, involuntary picking at bedclothes, seen especially in febrile or exhaustive delirium of the low muttering type.
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".

carpology
cartology
A method of coal-seam correlation which involves the mapping and drawing of both vertical and horizontal sections.
catachronobiology (s) (noun) (no pl)
The study of the deleterious effects of time on a living system: Mrs. Rush was doing research in catachronobiology to find out the harmful consequences of time on living organisms.
cerebrology
cereologist (s) (noun), cereologists (pl)
Someone, or those, who study crop circles or circles that are seen in wheat fields: "The circles, or hundreds of huge geometrical patterns in the middle of English wheat fields, appeared like magic in the middle of the night and created a new term known as cereologist."

"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."

—As seen in Word Spy who presented excerpts from
"Hoaxes of the ages," by Andrew Curry et al.; U.S. News & World Report, July 24, 2000.
cetologists
Someone who specializes in the zoology of whales and related aquatic mammals.
cetology, cetological
The scientific study of cetaceans including whales, dolphins, and porpoises.
chaology
The history or description of the chaos.
cheirologist, chirologist
1. A person who communicates thoughts by signs made with the hands and fingers.
2. Someone who makes the hand a subject of study.
cheirology, chirology
1. The technique of communicating by signs made with the hands and fingers; especially, in the manual alphabets used by the deaf and mute.
2. The study of the hand.
3. Telling fortunes by lines on the palm of the hand; synonyms: palmistry, palm reading, chiromancy.
cheiropodology, chiropodology
A written presentation on corns, warts, bunions, and their causes and treatments of the hands and feet.
chelonologist
chelonology
chemicobiology
The chemistry of living matter.
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-.