zoology

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin zoologia (“science of animals”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Latin from 1630 and often in the titles of works from 1632,^[2] formed from zoo- and -logia.^[2][5] Barnhart, Hoad and Klein derive the Latin from Modern Greek ζῳολογία (zōiología), a modern Greek formation,^[4][7][8] built on Ancient Greek ζῷον (zôion, “animal”) and -λογία (-logía, “study”).^[8][3][4] The Greek noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gwei- (“to live”).^[3] The word is related to zoo and zodiac.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The branch of natural science dealing with animals: 1663, in Robert Boyle's Some Considerations touching the Usefulnesse of Experimental Natural Philosophy.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the noun to 1669 and the derivative zoologist to 1663, in Boyle.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Before it named a science, the Latin word was used in English contexts for the part of medicine that dealt with remedies obtained from animals: Bateson's translation of part of Schröder's Pharmacopoeia (1659) was titled Ζωολογια: or the History of Animals, as they are useful in physick and chirurgery.^[2][7][4] The early dictionaries of English recorded only "a treatise concerning living creatures", Johnson's definition of 1755, which was still the only sense in Todd's edition of 1818.^[2][10] The OED dates that sense, a work on animals, to 1724, and the sense "the animals of a region", a fauna, to 1746.^[2] Etymonline notes that with botany it became one of the two main branches of biology.^[3]

Timeline

• 1663 – the scientific study of animals, in Boyle.^[2]
• 1724 – a book or treatise on animals, in Bailey's dictionary.^[2]
• 1746 – the animals of a region; fauna.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The branch of biology that studies animals, their structure, physiology, behaviour, classification and distribution.^[11][5][2]
2. The animal life of a particular region or period; fauna: the zoology of the Galápagos.^[11][5][2]
3. The biological characteristics of a particular animal or group of animals.^[11]
4. A book or treatise on animals.^[11][5][2]

Word family

• zoologist
• zoological
• protozoology
• cryptozoology
• paleozoology

Related words

• zoo
• zodiac
• zoo-
• -logy
• biology
• botany
• fauna

Usage notes

The pronunciation with /zuː-/, influenced by the clipping zoo, has often been criticized by usage guides.^[2] The OED's first edition (1921) preferred /zəʊ-/ and called /zuː-/ “popular”.^[2] It is now as common as /zəʊ-/, and much more common in British than in American use.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins