technology

Picture an ancient Greek explaining grammar as if it were a craft workshop: that was τεχνολογία, a systematic treatment of an art or skill. The first half, τέχνη, was much broader than modern “technology”—it could include music, cookery, medicine, navigation, or the construction of a ship. The second half, -λογία, points to λόγος, a word, account, or carefully arranged explanation; it is the same family that gives us philology, astrology, and anthology. English borrowed the learned form in the 1610s, but the modern machinery-centered sense arrived much later: by 1859, spinning, metalworking, and brewing could count as “technology.” And when “high-tech” appeared in 1972, the old Greek pairing of skilled making and organized explanation had finally acquired a shiny electronic afterlife.