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-logy is a suffix
Suffix

In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
  in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, found in words originally adapted from Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 words ending in -????a (-logia). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 -logie, which was in turn inherited from the Latin -logia.

It has two main senses in English:



ords of the type theology
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
, the suffix is derived originally from (-log-) (a variant of , -leg-), from the Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 verb (legein, "to speak").






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-logy is a suffix
Suffix

In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
  in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, found in words originally adapted from Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 words ending in -????a (-logia). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 -logie, which was in turn inherited from the Latin -logia.

It has two main senses in English:

  • a combining form used in the names of sciences or bodies of knowledge (e.g. theology
    Theology

    Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
     or sociology
    Sociology

    Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
    )
  • the root word nouns that refer to kinds of speech, writing or collections of writing (e.g. eulogy
    Eulogy

    A eulogy is a Speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. The word is derived from the Greek word e?????a , meaning praise ....
     or trilogy
    Trilogy

    A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature, film, or video games, that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works....
    )


Etymology

In words of the type theology
Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
, the suffix is derived originally from (-log-) (a variant of , -leg-), from the Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
 verb (legein, "to speak"). The suffix has the sense of "the character or department of one who speaks or treats of [a certain subject]", or more succinctly, "the study of [a certain subject]".

In words of the type trilogy
Trilogy

A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature, film, or video games, that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works....
, the "-logy" element is derived from the Greek noun (logos
Logos

is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos....
, "speech"). The suffix has the sense of "[a certain kind of] speaking or writing".

-logy versus -ology

In English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 names for fields of study, the suffix -logy is most frequently found preceded by the euphonic connective vowel o so that the word ends in -ology. In these Greek words, the root
Root (linguistics)

The root is the primary lexicology unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantics content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
 is always a noun and -o- is the combining vowel for all declensions of Greek nouns. However, when new names for fields of study are coined in modern English, the formations ending in -logy almost always add an -o-, except when the root word end in an "l" or a vowel, as in exceptions: analogy
Analogy

Analogy is both the cognition process of transferring information from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a language expression corresponding to such a process....
, dekalogy, disanalogy, genealogy
Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigree of its members....
, genethlialogy, herbalogy (a variant of herbology), , mammalogy
Mammalogy

In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals ? a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems....
, mineralogy
Mineralogy

Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization....
, paralogy
Paralogy

Paralogy, depending on context, may refer to:* Paralogy - see Homology * Paralogy - see Jean-Fran?ois Lyotard - in this context, paralogy means the movement against an established way of reasoning...
, , petralogy (a variant of petrology
Petrology

In geology, petrology is the study of Rock s, and the conditions in which they form. Lithology once was approximately synonymous with petrography, but in current usage, lithology is a subdivision of petrology focusing on macroscopic hand-sample or outcrop-scale description of rocks, while petrography is the speciality that deals with m...
), tetralogy
Tetralogy

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. Compare to a trilogy; made up of three works.The name comes from the Attica theater, where tetralogies were meant to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia....
; ; antilogy, , trilogy
Trilogy

A trilogy is a set of three works of art, usually literature, film, or video games, that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or three individual works....
; , ; ; eulogy
Eulogy

A eulogy is a Speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. The word is derived from the Greek word e?????a , meaning praise ....
; and brachylogy.Linguists sometimes jokingly refer to haplology
Haplology

Haplology is defined as the elimination of a syllable when two consecutive identical or similar syllables occur. The phenomenon was identified by American philologist Maurice Bloomfield in the 20th century....
 as haplogy (subjecting the word haplology to haplology).

Additional usage as a suffix

Per metonymy
Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept....
, words ending in -logy are sometimes used to describe a subject rather than the study of it (e.g. technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
). This usage is particularly widespread in medicine; for example, pathology
Pathology

Pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through examination of Organ , tissue , bodily fluids and whole bodies . The term also encompasses the related science study of disease processes, called General pathology....
 is often used simply to refer to "the study of a disease" but to refer to "the disease" itself (e.g. "We haven't found the pathology yet").

Books, journals and treatises about a subject also often bear the name of this subject (e. g. Ecology (journal)
Ecology (journal)

Ecology is a scientific journal publishing research and synthesis papers in the field of ecology. It was founded in 1920, and is published by the Ecological Society of America....
).

When appended to other English words, the suffix can also be used humorously to create nonce words (e.g. beer
Beer

Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and Fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal?the most common of which is malted barley, although wheat, maize , and rice are widely used....
ology as "the study of beer", Wiki
Wiki

A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content , using a simplified markup language....
ology as "the study of Wikipedia"). As with other classical compound
Classical compound

A large portion of the technology and science lexicon of English language and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. These are compound words composed from Latin or Ancient Greek etymology....
s, adding the suffix to a initial word-stem derived from Greek or Latin may be used to lend grandeur or the impression of scientific rigor to humble pursuits, as in cosmetology ("the study of beauty treatment") or cynology ("the study of dog training").

Additional usage as a substantive

When used as a proper noun, Ology can refer to a particular series of fantasy books and fictional encyclopedias. These currently include Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons
Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons

Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons is a 2003 fantasy book edited by Dugald Steer, published by Templar Publishing in the United Kingdom and by Candlewick Press in the United States....
, Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris
Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris

Egyptology: Search for the Tomb of Osiris is a fiction book created and published in the UK by Templar Publishing and published by Candlewick Press in America in 2004....
, Wizardology: The Book of the Secrets of Merlin, Pirateology: A Pirate Hunter's Companion
Pirateology: A Pirate Hunter's Companion

Pirateology: A Pirate Hunter's Companion is a fantasy book by written by Dugald Steer and designed by Nghiem Ta. It was published in 2006 by Templar Publishing in the United Kingdom and Candlewick Press in the United States...
, and Mythology: Greek Gods, Heroes, & Monsters
Mythology: Greek Gods, Heroes, & Monsters

Mythology: Greek Gods, Heroes, & Monsters is a 2007 children's book created and published by the Templar Company plc in the UK and published by the Candlewick Press in America....
.

See also

  • Classical compound
    Classical compound

    A large portion of the technology and science lexicon of English language and other Western European languages consists of classical compounds. These are compound words composed from Latin or Ancient Greek etymology....
  • Suffixes


External links