Why do ppl stick an "ology" at the end?

mike65

When I was growing up there was no such word as Methodology now its all you hear. A number of other words have received unslightly apendages to thier form
It makes me wonder if ppl think it reflects better on them if the word is longer and sounds more complex than needs be the case.

http://www.hyperdictionary.com/search.aspx?define=ology

Mike.

simu

The word has been around for quite a while (unfortunately I have no dictionary at hand to get exact dates) but only relatively recently has it become popularised. This happens all the time - words from various academic disciplines are brought into everyday speech. And yes, I think you're right. People like to use long, complicated words as the use of such words is associated with intelligence in our society.

What's really funny is people who use such words when it's clear they have no idea what they really mean and end up producing codology.:)

Interestingly:

The word ology is a back-formation from the names of these disciplines. Such words are formed from Greek or Latin roots with the terminal -logy derived from the Greek suffix -????? (-logia), speaking, from ?????? (legein), to speak. The word ology is thus misleading as the 'o' is actually part of the word stem that receives the -logy ending. For example, the bio part of biology stems from Greek ???? (bios), life. This is why some of the words do not end in -ology (such as mineralogy).

From here

Capt'n Midnight

"it's an ology - you're a scientist"

Talliesin

mike65 wrote:

When I was growing up there was no such word as Methodology now its all you hear.

This is marketing. Like many words created for marketing purposes it is:

• Pointless - the word "method" already existed in the English language, and what people are talking about when they refer to a methodology is a method.
• Coined in ignorance to the meaning of the root words used - "methodology" should mean the study of methods, not a method.
• Pseudo-scientific - the reason for using "-ology" is to create a false sense of scientific validity or technical understanding.
• Humourless - Irish slang contains the terms "codology" and "bollixology", hacker slang contains the terms "fontology" and "boxology". However these are consciously coined as jokes and their use indicates at least some degree of humour (especially "fontology recapitulates file-ogeny" - a play on "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" - Haeckel's now discredited theory that embryos go through phases reflecting the evolutionary history of the species). "Methodology" on the other hand is generally used by self-deluding fools (A.K.A. managers) and deeply self-deluding fools (so-called "Gurus") who dislike being laughed at almost as much as they dislike it when you point out the logical impossibility of whatever stupid "methodology" they are proposing next.
• Unclear - unlike most professional groups, which use jargon to be precise and slang to be vague or to work intuitively on the basis of common knowledge held by all in said group, marketers use jargon to be imprecise and/or opaque. There is an implication that there is some difference between a "method" and a "methodology", though of course there isn't (apart from the fact that the former term is more likely to be used by someone with a clue) and the implication therefore serves no purpose but to confuse

Of course the term "methodology" can be applied to perfectly valid methods, so the term itself implies a lack of understanding it may be that the particular method is valid (only Stanislavsky's method of acting seems to have escaped this, probably because there already exist the shorthand terms "the Stanislavksy Method" and "method acting"). That said, the fact that someone is using the term "methodology" does increase the chances that the speaker misunderstands or misapplies the method in question, often to the extent of completely undermining the point of it.

Capt'n Midnight

Oology is the shortest one.

considering the head shape of -ologists it's appropiately enough the study of eggs

elvenscout742

... and according to Merriam-Webster Online, the word was a "New Latin" compound that was brought into English in its current form, so it is a case of adding "-logia", rather than "-logy", to the end of a word, and should not really be mentioned in this forum.

mike65

Last edited by Amz : Today at 16:07. Reason: We don't like "txt spk" on the English Forum Mike.

I dnt rembr wrtng n txt spk. I hate it.

Mike.

elvenscout742

mike65 wrote:

I dnt rembr wrtng n txt spk. I hate it.

What about your "ppl"?

mike65

elvenscout742 wrote:

What about your "ppl"?

I did'nt get that from txting I got that from spending too much time on boards!

Mike.

Amz

Perhaps you should proof read your posts in future to ensure this doesn’t happen again?

MrVestek

Wtf? Wat wrng wth typn lik dis? Drs nutn wrng wth it.... Dsnt mk me luk lik a skngr @ al

Amz

*groan*

the_syco

mike65 wrote:

When I was growing up there was no such word as Methodology now its all you hear.

Other words that came into existance recently; fúck sh|t mofo

It happens. Not too long ago, we took of the "e" off some olde/old words. Its just the evolution of a language, IMHO.

Talliesin

the_syco wrote:

It happens. Not too long ago, we took of the "e" off some olde/old words. Its just the evolution of a language, IMHO.

Yes, but there is a difference between sounds being elided, metaphors solidified, slang terms gaining wider acceptance, loan words being adopted and stupid twats sticking -ology onto a word without changing the meaning just to appear smarter than they are.

There's a difference between correct English and good English, "methodology" is correct English (because it's widely attested enough that we can't dispute its existence or meaning) but it isn't good English (because only a brainless middle-management type or a marketing goon with as much sense of poetry as a constipated Puritan would use it).

ecksor

You seem to be contradicting your first post on this thread. What about the meaning "A body of practices, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline or engage in an inquiry; a set of working methods: the methodology of genetic studies; a poll marred by faulty methodology."

I'm quite happy to differentiate in places where distinct methods form a coherent body of work. One (a method) seems to represent something that represents a clearcut set of instructions which a practitioner can umambiguously follow and the other (a methodology) seems to represent a collection of such sets of instructions but where the choosing of the particular clearcut set of instructions might not be so clearcut.

JBoyle4eva

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

"it's an ology - you're a scientist"

You reminded me of an old British Telecom(now BT) ad I downloaded a year or so ago when it was the gran and grandson advert series. It was one where the g/son was getting his o-level results and all he passed was potter and sociology and the gran replies "You've got an ology and you say you failed? You get an ology: yo're a scientist". Very nice ad!

Talliesin

ecksor wrote:

You seem to be contradicting your first post on this thread. What about the meaning "A body of practices, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline or engage in an inquiry; a set of working methods: the methodology of genetic studies; a poll marred by faulty methodology."

That's already a sense of the word "method".

ecksor

Right, but why does that invite negative connotations towards people who use the word properly?

The common misuse of the word is discussed at http://www.answers.com/methodology but I'd rather keep using it in its correct sense since it applies well to certain cases where "method" would suggest something else.

ExOffender

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "pro-active". I know it's not an 'ology' but it's part of that management-gibberish thing. I looked it up. It's a neurological term, AFAIR, referring to 'a synaptic impulse which stimulates or is conducive to the stimulation of another synaptic impulse' (this may not be 100% correct.) But these 'people' use the word as an antonym to 'reactive', even though 'reactive' is the antonym (in certain contexts) to 'active'. Talk about re-inventing the wheel...

pickarooney

Don't people use "pro-active" to describe taking initiative and encouraging colleagues to do the same, i.e. addressing issues before they become problems?

That said, they probably use it to mean any old thing.

What bright spark decided that OOF meant Out of the Office ?

magpie

Pseudo-scientific - the reason for using "-ology" is to create a false sense of scientific validity or technical understanding.

That's pretty much the crux of it.

Capt'n Midnight

pickarooney wrote:

What bright spark decided that OOF meant Out of the Office ?

sounds like some goof..

Be Proactive - generate Bingo cards for that next meeting.