Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 May 12

= May 12 =

Ologies, and similar words
The OED shows us that the word "ology" has long been a word -- not just a bound base within longer words, but an actual word.

Unfortunately one can't look inside writers' heads to examine their conscious (let alone subconscious) thought processes when using words; but I suspect (alas without evidence) that the great majority of uses of "ology"/"ologies" are self conscious -- that the writer is (A) making a little wink to the reader, or (B) indicating particular words (an undefined set of words ending "ology" or with different but somehow comparable construction) rather than (or as strongly as) particular concepts ("areas of formal study, especially at the university level"), or both. I could describe (A) as "jocular". But what about (B) -- is there a term for a word that's primarily, or conspicuously, about one or more other words? (I'm sure there are other examples, but right now I can only think of the [obsolete?] Briticism "effing and blinding", and the French tutoyer.) -- Hoary (talk) 02:35, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

PS I note that most of the hits for "ology" in COCA are either about the morpheme ("I mean histo is a story, and then ology is the study of", etc), are mere typos ("Astrobi ­ ology is usually thought of as the search for life outside of Earth", etc), or, as explained in one of the hits: "The American Museum of Natural History offers 'OLogy: The Museum's Web Site for Kids'". Meanwhile, most of the (much fewer) hits for "ologies" have this in quotation marks, whether actual or easily imagined ("Don't start tellin me' bout no psychology and social ology. I know all I need to know' bout them ologies. I know blackology and Americanology", etc). -- Hoary (talk) 09:04, 12 May 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure I'm really following your question, but is "-gate" another example of what you're after? Our article doesn't really define that kind of word, but supplies a few other examples. Matt Deres (talk) 22:30, 12 May 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm sorry that I was incomprehensible, Matt Deres. I don't have access to the OED right now, but neither what's in that listicle nor anything in my head says that "gate" is (yet) an example. However, it certainly has the potential of being one. Let's consider the [cough] of course entirely hypothetical case of a government that appears to be embroiled in a series of funny business (snooping, embezzlement, hush money, blatant incompetence, falsehoods). If these were individually called "-gates" ("Russiagate", "Rainygate", etc), and if people were then to make remarks such as "With this administration, it's just been one damn gate after another", then yes, "gate" would share with "ology" a property for which I suspect a name exists even if I can't think of it. &para; This isn't enantiosemy, but I suspect that the kind of lexical semantics text that briefly describes enantiosemy might also briefly describe, and name, what I'm trying to get at. -- Hoary (talk) 03:35, 13 May 2018 (UTC)


 * The linguistic term for the process by which quasi-words such as ology are coined is back-formation. If someone coins a new word on the spot without having seen or heard it before, then it's a nonce word... AnonMoos (talk) 05:03, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you. Yes, "ology", so far as it is a word, may be a back-formation. (Though if it is, then Wikipedia's explanation of the latter may be defective. Wikipedia talks of the stripping of what are misanalysed as affixes; whereas "physi(o)", "metr(o)" and the rest are bound bases and hardly look like prefixes.) However "eff(ing) and blind(ing)" and tutoyer are not back-formations. What I'm hunting for is a concept that encompasses "ology" and tutoyer, not "ology" and "burgle". It's a matter of semantics, not of etymology. -- Hoary (talk) 05:49, 13 May 2018 (UTC)


 * More related to speech: delocution / delocutive? You can find articles on delocutive verbs (salutare being a frequently given example). German Wikipedia has a short article on Delokution. (But it only really works for tutoyer, not ologies or isms). ---Sluzzelin  talk  06:08, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you! I hadn't heard of this pair of words; but now that they're brought to my attention I fully agree with you: tutoyer yes; "ology" no. I may be getting closer now. -- Hoary (talk) 08:12, 13 May 2018 (UTC)


 * You got an ology you're a scientist! DuncanHill (talk) 23:02, 14 May 2018 (UTC)