Have you ever wondered why someone who studies weather is called a “meteorologist” rather than a “weather-ologist?”
If a Cardiologist studies the heart and a Paleontologist studies fossils, then WHY doesn’t a Meteorologist study meteors?
When you add the suffix -ologist to the end of a word, it refers to a person who studies a particular subject (usually a science).
The reason we use this word (that is difficult to both pronounce and spell) dates back to around 350 B.C. when the Greek scientist and philosopher, Aristotle, wrote a book (journal) called “Meteorologica.”
Because he didn’t have a lot of information about what happens where above the earth, he grouped everything together – stars, meteors, clouds. The term “meteorology” was used to describe everything that happened above the earth. The term stuck and is still used today.
Even though it sounds like someone who studies meteors, a meteorologist is actually the title given to someone who studies and forecasts weather. Meteorology is the science of weather.
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