cetology
1
8.8
- noun
- /sɪˈtɑlədʒi/
- Specialized
- The novel has a trunk, which provides the main thrust of the narrative, but it also has branches (chapters like "Cetology" or "The Town-Ho's Story") that seem to grow out of but also away from the main line of the narrative.
Examples
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The chapter "Cetology" is divided into a sort of mock academic shape: the Folio Whale, the Octavo Whale, the Duodecimo Whale.
Fiction book (2000) -
You can talk about primatology or cetology if you're just studying cetaceans, entomology if you're studying insects.
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Epiphanies about salvation might well occur to an illiterate rural boy; a seaman might well have become, after an encounter with a monstrous whale, an expert on cetology.
Academic text (2009) -
In college, I took a fascinating course on cetology, where we studied the behaviors of whales and dolphins.
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Researchers at the marine institute focus on cetology to better understand the communication of porpoises.
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The documentary provided an insightful look into cetology, highlighting the conservation efforts for endangered whale species.
Surface Forms
Morphology
cetology = ceto + logy
The term is built from classical combining forms, but the element 'ceto-' is not a familiar English word for most learners, so the meaning is not readily inferable.
Etymology
Cetology comes from the Greek root ketos, meaning 'whale', and the ending -logy, meaning 'study' and seen in words like biology. So, cetology is the study of whales, dolphins, and porpoises.