Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Ichthyology
/ˌɪkθiˈɑːlədʒi/noun
The branch of zoology that deals with fish.
The Greek roots
ἰχθύς
ichthýs
fish
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of fishes”
The story of the word
ἰχθύς gave the early church its fish sign, because the five letters work as an acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. The scientific word arrives in the 1640s, when European naturalists were still arguing about what counted as a fish and whales and shellfish were both on the list. Fossil hunters later used the same root for Ichthyosaurus, the fish-lizard.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1640s
Same family
ichthyosaurichthyosisichthyologist
In a sentence
Her ichthyology collection is four thousand jars in a basement.
Ichthyology stops being tidy the moment you look at lungfish.