terminology

Etymology

From French terminologie or German Terminologie and their source, New Latin terminologia, from Medieval Latin terminus (“a term”) + -ologia (“study of”), from -o- (“(interconsonantal)”) + -logia, from Ancient Greek -λογία (-logía, “-logy, branch of study, to speak”).

noun

1. A treatise on terms, especially those used in a specialised field.
2. The set of terms actually used in any business, art, science, or the like; nomenclature; technical terms.
   [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.[…]Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
   Language is always changing — but it shouldn’t become inflexible, especially when new terminologies, in the name of inclusion, sometimes wind up making others feel excluded. 2022-10-23, Pamela Paul, “Let’s Say Gay”, in The New York Times
3. The scientific study of such terms.