-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.

radiology
realized eschatology (s) (noun), realized eschatologies (pl)
A Christian theory popularized by C. H. Dodd (1884–1973) which states that the eschatological passages in the New Testament do not refer to the future, but instead refer to the ministry of Jesus and his lasting legacy.

Eschatology is therefore, not the end of the world but its rebirth instituted by Jesus and continued by his disciples, an historical (rather than a transhistorical) phenomenon.

Those who believe this viewpoint generally dismiss the "end times" theories, believing them to be irrelevant.

They contend that what Jesus said and did, and told his disciples to do also, are of greater significance than any messianic expectations.

This view is more attractive to many people, especially liberal Christians, since it reverses the notion of Jesus' coming as an apocalyptic event, something which they interpret as being hardly in keeping with the overall theme of Jesus' teachings in the canonical gospels, and are troubled by its firm association with evangelicalism and conservative politics.

Instead, they say that eschatology should be about being engaged in the process of becoming, rather than waiting for external and unknown forces to bring about some kind of "end of the world" or prophetic destruction.

reflexology
1. A form of massage in which pressure is applied to parts of the feet and hands in order to promote relaxation and healing elsewhere in the body.
2. The scientific study of physiological reflexes and their relation to behavior.
3. A theory that explains human behavior as complex chains of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes.
rescue archaeology, rescue archeology (s) (noun) (no pl)
The branch of archaeology devoted to studying artifacts and features on sites which are imminently threatened by development in the form of the construction of dams, buildings, highways, etc,: Rescue archaeology is concerned with the threats to archaeological remains occurring in the form of road-building, road improvement, new building of houses, offices, and industrial complexes, the flooding of valleys for reservoirs, and improved farming techniques involving the use of deep plowing.

The rescue, or salvage, archaeologist, is concerned with the retrieval of as much information as possible about the archaeological sites before they are damaged or destroyed. Frequently time is too short and funds are too limited for anything but a brief survey.

rhabdology, rabdology
The method or art of performing arithmetical operations by means of Napier's bones.

Napier's bones: A set of graduated rods used to perform multiplication quickly.

rhematology
The study of rhemes, a branch of semantics.
rheologist
rheology
1. The study of fluid movements.
2. That aspect of limnology devoted to running waters.
rheumatologist
rheumatology
rhinolaryngology
1. The science of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of the nose and larynx.
2. The sum of knowledge concerning the nose and larynx and their diseases.
rhinologist
A specialist in rhinology.
rhinology
1. The branch of medical science concerned with the nose and its diseases.
2. The sum of knowledge regarding the nose and its diseases.
river morphology (s) (noun), river morphologies (pl)
The study of a channel pattern and its geometric forms at several points along a waterway, including the network of tributaries within a drainage basin.
roentgenologist
Radiologist, a physician who uses x-rays or other sources of radiation for diagnosis and treatment.
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-.