Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ologists

A lot of scientific professions end in "-logy". And quite right to. The ending comes from logos meaning speech, word or discourse in good old Ancient Greek. So why, oh why, do some think the word should end in "-ology"? Biology (bios=life) I have no problem with. Mineralogy I have no problem with. Criminology I have a lot of issues with. Is this the study of criminols? Surely, it should be Criminalogy.
Zoology is another one that irks me. Not because of the spelling; it's the pronunciation that gets me. I guess that 99% of the UK would pronounce it "zoo"+"ology". That would make the spelling "Zooology". It is pronounced "Zo"+"ology", the first two letters as in the girls' name Zoƫ.
I'm going to bed. Not that I'll sleep with all this mayhem!

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