entry
ontology
/ɒnˈtɒlədʒi/study of being and what exists
From Greek onto (being) + Greek log (account).
from New Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus))
Word Ancestry
from New Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus))
Some words arrive looking all dignified and ancient, but ontology is a bookish invention with a birth certificate. In 1606, the German scholar Jacob Lorhard coined New Latin ontologia in his Ogdoas Scholastica, stitching together Greek ontos, “being,” and logos, “account” or “study,” so the whole thing means something like “the study of being.” That same logos family gave us logic, biology, geology, and a whole library of words that sound as if they belong in a university tower. English picked the term up by 1663 in Gideon Harvey’s Archelogia philosophica nova, and later the philosopher Christian Wolff helped make it a standard philosophical label. So when you say ontology, you are really talking about a word that was engineered to ask the oldest question possible: what, exactly, counts as existing?
The Story
Some words arrive looking all dignified and ancient, but ontology is a bookish invention with a birth certificate. In 1606, the German scholar Jacob Lorhard coined New Latin ontologia in his Ogdoas Scholastica, stitching together Greek ontos, “being,” and logos, “account” or “study,” so the whole thing means something like “the study of being.” That same logos family gave us logic, biology, geology, and a whole library of words that sound as if they belong in a university tower. English picked the term up by 1663 in Gideon Harvey’s Archelogia philosophica nova, and later the philosopher Christian Wolff helped make it a standard philosophical label. So when you say ontology, you are really talking about a word that was engineered to ask the oldest question possible: what, exactly, counts as existing?
Kin & Kindred
From 'onto'·being; existing
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'log'·account; discourse; study
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary