-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. In philosophy, the doctrine of the effects on the mind of pleasure and pain.
2. A medical specialist who strives to determine the essential nature of diseases; especially, of the changes in body tissues and organs that cause or are caused by disease.
2. The branch of medical science that studies the origin, nature, and course of diseases.
3. Pathology was originally the study of “suffering”.
2. The disturbance of function that a disease causes in an organ, as distinct from any changes in structure that might be caused.
3. Deranged function in an individual or an organ that is due to a disease; a pathophysiologic alteration is a change in function as distinguished from a structural defect.
