Etymo logy is the study of the origin of words. In turn, zoo logy is the ‘study’ of animals. Now on to a few of the many English words which end in -logy, ‘study (of).’ Bio logy is the ‘study’ of life. A logophile is someone who loves ‘words.’ Someone who is afflicted with logorrhea, on the other hand, loves to hear himself speaking ‘words’ and just won’t shut up! An epi logue, on the other hand, contains those ‘words’ written after a novel or play has ended, giving a little more information as to the future lives of the characters. Many literature students have read Chaucer’s “General Pro logue,” which are those ‘words’ spoken before the main poem begins. A mono logue, on the other hand, is those ‘words’ spoken by one person alone, usually as part of a play or stand-up comedy routine. A cata log is similar in idea, for it contains a thorough listing of ‘words’ which describe items for sale.Ī dia logue consists of the ‘words’ spoken between two people. The captains on Star Trek, whether Kirk or Picard or Janeway, are constantly entering data or ‘words’ into their captain’s log, telling about their journeys through space. Notes at the bottom of a dictionary entry-especially usage notes and synonym studies-are often where we’ll find the detailed information that allows us to improve (or refine or polish ) our writing.The Greek root word log means ‘word,’ and its variant suffix -logy means ‘study (of).’ Lists of synonyms are useful when we are struggling to write and looking for just the right word, but each word must be considered in light of its specific definition. The verbs make and construct mean roughly the same thing, but one is more likely to make a cake but construct a building, which is a more complex undertaking. A sunset might be described equally well as beautiful or resplendent, but a beautiful baby would not usually be described as resplendent, which implies an especially dazzling appearance. And when we move from nouns to other parts of speech, we almost always find subtle but important differences among synonyms: although the meanings overlap, they differ in emphasis and connotation. But forest and wood, though often interchangeable, have different shades of meaning: a forest tends to be larger and denser than a wood. And if you ask for a soda on the east coast of the U.S., you’ll get the same drink that asking for a pop will get you farther west. Just about every popular dictionary defines synonym as a term having “the same or nearly the same” meaning as another, but there is an important difference between “the same” and “nearly the same.” Noun synonyms sometimes mean exactly the same thing.
English, with its long history of absorbing terminology from a wealth of other tongues, is a language particularly rich in synonyms -words so close in meaning that in many contexts they are interchangeable, like the nouns tongue and language in the first part of this sentence.
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