Etymo

geology

The study of Earth and its physical history.

Played on · Day 10 · word 1 of 5

An account of the earth.

How geology reached English

oldest first

Greek

  • geo-‘earth’
  • logia‘a speaking, discourse, treatise, doctrine, theory, science’

combined

  1. New Latin

    geologia

    ‘the study of the earth’

  2. English

    geology

    ‘science of the past and present condition of the Earth's crust’

The story of geology

Geology comes through scientific Latin geologia. Its components name the earth and a study or account. Rocks supply evidence for that study, but the first component means earth rather than simply stone.

This view explains the components. They are pieces of one construction, not consecutive borrowing stages.

Sources

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