Histological

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Pertaining to the study or analysis of the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues
2. Connected to examining tissue samples under a microscope to understand their structure
3. Involving the detailed microscopic observation and description of tissue organization and composition

Etymology: "Histological" is a plain technical formation: it is "histology" with the adjective-forming suffix "-ical" added. "Histology" itself was coined in the early nineteenth century from Greek roots, "histos" meaning "web" or "tissue" and "-logia", "study of", so the adjective describes what relates to the study of tissue under the microscope. The suffix has a longer pedigree than the base. "-ical" grew from Latin "-icus" and "-alis", both adjective endings meaning "pertaining to", which passed through Old French into Middle English as "-ic" and "-al" and were joined together in English to form "-ical". Adding both endings to a single noun is a familiar English habit, seen in words like "geological" and "economical" as well.