Gelotology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The scientific study of laughter and its physical, psychological, and social effects on human health and behavior
2. The branch of inquiry that examines laughter as a phenomenon, including its causes, mechanisms, and role in medicine and well-being
3. An academic discipline investigating the nature of laughter and humor, including their therapeutic applications and neurological basis

Etymology: Gelotology, the scientific study of laughter, was coined in March 1964 by the anthropologist and linguist Edith Trager, working with the American psychiatrist William F. Fry Jr. Its building blocks are ancient Greek: "gelōs" means "laughter," and the genitive form "gelōtos" gave the new word its stem. The suffix "-logy," from Greek "-logia," marks a field of study, as in biology or psychology. Fry became the word's best-known champion. In a 1975 introduction to a book of interviews with comedy writers, he quoted Trager's own explanation that she had built the term from its Greek roots to name "the science of laughter." Later research, including a 2022 cross-sectional study of older Japanese adults, still credits Fry with coining the term in the 1960s.

Synonyms: humor research