Dactyliology

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌdæktɪlɪˈɒlədʒi/

Definitions

1. The study of fingerprint patterns and their classification within forensic science
2. A branch of science focused on the analysis and identification of fingerprints for purposes of personal identification
3. The examination and categorization of fingerprint designs and their significance in forensic investigations

Etymology: Dactyliology is a plain compound built from two Greek parts. The first, "daktulios," meant "finger ring" in ancient Greek, and the second, "-logy," comes from "logos," meaning "study" or "discourse." Put together, the sense is the study of rings, or of fingers, depending on how the first element is read. The word's modern meaning is much narrower than its parts suggest. It names the scientific analysis of fingerprints for identifying people, a field that grew up in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The connection to rings is a historical accident of Greek vocabulary: "daktulios" is the source of the English word "dactyl," the metrical foot in poetry, and it links to the Greek word for finger, "daktylos," which is the element that makes dactyliology a study of digits.