-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 science of current organic life.
2. A branch of biology that is concerned with the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system.
In the human body, two systems control all physiologic processes. One of these systems is neurologic while the other is endocrine.
The nervous system exerts point-to-point control through nerves. Nervous control is electrochemical in nature and is rapid.
The endocrine system broadcasts its messages to essentially all cells by the secretion of hormones into the blood and extracellular fluids.
Like a radio broadcast, it requires a receiver to get the message. To receive endocrine messages, cells must bear a receptor for the hormone being broadcast in order to respond to it.
The nervous and endocrine systems often act together to regulate the physiologic processes of the human body and those interactions constitute neuroendocrinology.
