Earth & SkyGreek → English
Paleontology
/ˌpeɪliɑːnˈtɑːlədʒi/noun
The study of fossils and of life in the geological past.
The Greek roots
παλαιός
palaiós
ancient, old
ὄντα
ónta
beings, things existing
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of ancient beings”
The story of the word
Henri Ducrotay de Blainville coined palaeontologie in French around 1822, at the point when fossils stopped being cabinet curiosities and started being evidence of vanished life. The middle piece, ὄντα, is the participle of the verb to be, the same one carried by ontology, the study of what exists. So the name says the study of ancient existing things, which is a careful way of saying creatures nobody has ever seen.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1830s
Same family
ontologypaleolithicpaleography
In a sentence
Paleontology gets rewritten every time someone splits a shale bed in the right place.