φυσιολογία

Forms

φῠσῐολογίᾱ (phusiologíā) f (genitive φῠσῐολογίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis) + -λογία (-logíā), “an account of nature”.^[1] Babiniotis derives it from φυσιολόγος (phusiológos), the name given above all to the Presocratic natural philosophers, whose second part goes back to λέγω (légō).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aristotle's On Sense and Sensibles, of the study of natural causes and phenomena, there of plants.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

After Aristotle it was the usual word for the study of nature as a part of philosophy: Epicurus and Metrodorus used it, Diodorus and Strabo set it beside theology and mathematics, Cleanthes wrote a work on Zeno's “natural philosophy”, and Philo and Plutarch used it too.^[3][5][4] Hesychius glosses it as discourses that set out nature.^[6] Latin took it as physiologia, natural science.^[7][8]

In the Greek Enlightenment it was still a branch of natural philosophy.^[9] The modern sense, the science of the functions of living things, came into Modern Greek φυσιολογία (fysiología) from French physiologie, itself formed from the Greek word.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the inquiry into natural causes, in On Sense and Sensibles.^[3][4][10]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus pairs it with theology.^[3][4][10]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo pairs it with mathematics, and Philo uses it often.^[3][4][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for natural science.^[5][3][10]
• 1700–1821 – Greek scholarly writing treats it as a branch of natural philosophy.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It names the science of the functions of living organisms, after French physiologie.^[8][2][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inquiry into natural causes and phenomena; natural science, natural philosophy.^[3][5]

Word family

• φυσιολογικός (phusiologikós)

Related words

• φυσιολόγος (phusiológos)
• φύσις (phúsis)
• Latin physiologia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Κάτοπτρον: Ιστορικό λεξικό επιστημονικών όρων (Greek scientific terms 1700–1821)
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος