Geogeny

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The branch of study concerned with how the earth itself came into being and took its present form
2. The scientific account of the origin and development of the earth as a planet over geological time
3. Theory or study explaining how the physical earth was formed from earlier material in the universe

Etymology: Geogeny is built from two Greek elements. "Geo-" comes from "gē," meaning earth, and "-geny" comes from "-geneia," meaning origin or generation, from the verb "gignesthai," to be born or come into being. Put together, the word names the study or theory of how the earth came to be. The second element is the one that does the work. The same suffix appears in words like "cosmogeny," the origin of the universe, and "ontogeny," the development of an individual organism, so geogeny sits in a familiar family of scientific terms built on the same Greek pattern. Each was assembled from classical parts to name a specific kind of origin, rather than inherited from ancient usage. Because the word is a straightforward compound, its meaning follows directly from its parts: "geo-" for the earth and "-geny" for its coming into being. Its sense is largely the same as its literal construction.