-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 branch of medicine dealing with nutrition and dietetics.
3. The branch of therapeutics concerned with the practical application of diet in relation to health and disease.
2. The study of a particular social institution and the part it plays in society.
2. The study of the fauna of caves.
3. The study of organisms that live in caves.
These, in turn, have an influence on openings and cavities that are interconnected. Typically, conditions in such cave systems are continuously under conditions relative to air humidity which prevails over long periods of time, temperature variations which are very low, and air movements that are minimal or absent.
In combination with the total darkness inside the cave, these factors have led to the generation of very special and fragile ecosystems.
It is a common assumption in cave climatology that air movements in caves are the results of the endogenic factors (pressure differences inside the cave that are caused by differences of air density, which in turn are the result of temperature differences, humidity, and carbon dioxide content) and exogenic factors (differences between air pressure inside the cave and the outer atmosphere).