Talk:-logy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'd like to bring up the idea for a 'lowest acceptable threshold' for inclusion of words on this page. Take for example "Pekingology" and "Kremlinology". Initially I was skeptical about both these entries and as a first step tried both terms in Google. The Google search for "Kremlinology" turned up some 871 results and it appears therefore to have at least a small community that understands the term, though it does not appear to be study in the same formal sense as most of the other ologies listed on this page. However, a Google search for "Pekingology" returns only 14 results. Both terms seem to refer to the observation of the respective governments (Russian and China) by outside interests. In this sense, this usage could generalize to any government (Baghdadology?).

My query is not specifically about the two terms - though I'd suggest they're on the low end (Kremlinology), and very low end (Pekingology) of usefulness for inclusion in an encyclopedia - it's just that there must be some level below which ology terms are either a) too obscure, b) not clearly defined (multiple meanings between users of the term), or c) too ephemeral, d) not really ologies at all, to be worth including. I'm not suggesting a coarse 'minimum number of hits' or anything similar - "Xylology" gets only 74, an order of magnitude less than "Kremlinology" at 871 - but there should be some guideline, I think.

If we include these two then I'd be inclined to include "Macrology" (990 hits) as 'computer science: the study of macros, especially complex and esoteric macros' though this is a pretty obscure meaning to anyone other than a hacker.

I think my point comes down to this: for nearly any given verb or noun you'll find someone who has added 'ology' to it and has their own definition of the terms meaning. Where do you draw the line for inclusion in this list?

Some examples to ponder:

  • Smilology - 2 hits, no real meaning
  • Testology - 27 hits, at least three 'meanings'.
  • Ghostology - 109 hits, the obvious paranormal meaning.
  • Hamburgerology - 149 hits, a McDonald's qualification as far as I can tell.
  • Humorology - 201 hits, funnies.
  • Mechanology - 395 hits, references to a) precision instruments, and b) a company
  • Macrology - 990 hits, computer science: macros in Lisp and TECO.
  • Cosmetology - 16,000 hits, meanings vary from beauty therapy to new branch of orthopedics (about 350 references in this second sense according to Google).

Also, I noticed Therilogy and Mammology seem to both mean 'the study of mammals'. Are these synonyms, or is there some distinction? Angiology and lymphology also seem to overlap (or perhaps lymphology is a subset of angiology?).

Finally, I suspect that if you start to factor in all the medical ologies (both as studies and as practical medicine) there would be hundreds (thousands?) of ologies - maybe these should be factored out into a separate list if the list grows too large. Example:

  • Stomatology (21,500 hits)
  • Audiology (242,000 hits)
  • Peridontology (498 hits)
  • Otorhinolaryngology (62,000 hits)

pjlewis

Surely an ology isn't just words about something. It is much more than that. It is a science, or a theory, or a study of, or a branch of knowledge about a subject. Words is such an imprecise description, after all everything we ever say, as rational beings, is words, from nonsense to the most learned discourse. Dieter

I responded to Dieter's comment by changing "words about" to "the study of", expanding the etymology to justify this. -- Heron

I knew that someone wouldn't be able to resist mentioning the BT ology advert for this article. ;-)


Thank you, Heron, for pointing that out (that not all -ologies are ologies} and that, in fact, some are bodies of expression or bodies of writing rather than theories or studies, etc. You are absolutely right. It applies to trilogy (not strictly an -ology), which is a body of "three works of writing or words". Phraseology is how one puts words together, a style, then. Hagiology is a body of writing about saints, not necessarily a study of saints. Also quite rightly, haplology is a habit of (mis)pronouncing a word by omitting parts of that word, such as "Febuary" instead of "February".

Thanks for changing the examples where "study", etc, applies. Dieter

My pleasure. By the way, methodology is an in-between case, because it has an original sense, 'the study of methods', and a new, vacuous, pseudoscientific sense, as merely a synonym of 'method'. I hear marketing people using it all the time. Perhaps this word should carry a credibility warning. -- Heron

"An ology. He gets an ology and he says he's failed. You get an ology, you're a scientist!"
Beattie, played by Maureen Lipman in a 1987 British Telecom television advert
"Right, here we go now- A sociology lecture; A bit of psychology, A bit of neurology, A bit of fuckology..."
John Lydon, introduction to No Fun by The Sex Pistols.

I'm not sure how the above are relevant, although they're cute and sexy. I'm I just pointlessly bowdlerizing, mav? --Ed Poor

Seems like you have invented ologyology, congratulations Ping

There're some words on the list, like Trilogy, Tetralogy, Eulogy - these don't end in "ology", so I think that they must be removed. --webkid 17:42, 19 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Removed this:

  • Physiognomy, the study of a person's predominant temper and character in relationship to their physical characteristics, especially their face. A dead science.

Don't know what to do with it, it's not an ology. Kosebamse 12:35, 24 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Where did they get this definition of "haplology"? I understood haplology to be the use of only one of two repeated segments of a word (such as saying "Antanarivo" instead of "Antananarivo", or "hippotamus" instead of "hippopotamus") -- if you've even screwed up and written "shing" instead of "shining", this is what you've done. And it's not always even a mistake -- we do, for example, say "symbology" instead of "symbolology", and "monomial" instead of "mononomial". Wiwaxia 21:42, 4 Nov 2003 (UTC)

"Everybody needs some ology now, oop boopie do" Kevin Ayers (1976) Norwikian 16:19, 15 Nov 2003 (UTC)

If we have NOTOC, maybe we should move the "non-study" ologies further up. -- User:Docu

Surely ufology being the study of ufo's, should not be in the list of ologies that are not studies of subjects. -- User:Mjroots hi

"A Zumology is a treatise on the firmentation of liquors." Correct orthography is of course "fermentation".

[edit] Actinobiology

This thing does not exist. In Google search, I couldn't find a single article mentioning it. I also learned about radiation and never heard the name. 80.178.182.242 21:44, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Greek root underlying '-logy'

I have an indifferent knowledge of Greek, but in my hands I hold a reprint of a 1795 Analytical Greek Lexicon (Samuel Bagster and Sons Limited, London), which I bought in 1963. It says that the Greek word, λογια ("logia"), is an accusative plural of λóγιον ("logion"), which, like λεγειν, is a derivation of "lego" = "to speak," but means "oracle" or "revelation." In Greek, therefore, λογια ("logia") means "oracles" (given that it is a plural form).

However, according to the magisterial Oxford English Dictionary, λογια was a suffix in Greek long before words containing it migrated to Latin and later to English, and thus, from the beginning, may not have carried with it the oracular meaning of the whole word λογια, despite identical spelling. But, the connection is strong enough to lend an intriguing nuance to all the -ology words. In an academic discipline or course of study which is an -ology, it could be that the student is actually looking for a message from ultimate reality. Biology may really mean "oracles about living things," or possibly "attempting to discern the ultimate truth about living things!"

Tony Harwood-Jones 04:56, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

On a related matter, is the word logos, meaning word, logic, reason, etc. related? James Callahan 11:45, 22 December 2006 (UTC)