Earth & SkyGreek → English
Speleology
/ˌspiːliˈɒlədʒi/noun
The scientific study of caves and their formation, life and contents.
The Greek roots
σπήλαιον
spḗlaion
cave, grotto
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of caves”
The story of the word
The science acquired its name in French in the 1890s, as spéléologie, at the moment when Édouard-Alfred Martel was lowering himself down French sinkholes on rope ladders and turning cave exploration into a discipline with instruments and reports. English took the word almost immediately. Spelunker comes from Latin spelunca, itself borrowed from Greek σπῆλυγξ, so the scientist and the weekend caver carry cousin words that travelled by different roads.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → French → English
- First recorded
- 1890s
Same family
spelunkerspeleothem
In a sentence
Speleology gave the climate record its longest continuous sequences.
He came to speleology through caving and stayed for the bats.