Ology, attached to the end of a word, means the study of. It comes from the Greek word logia, meaning words or sayings.

Logia means sayings or words, a collection of writings, sayings, or oracles. It’s a common enough term in theological studies and philosophical traditions. It’s related to the Greek word, logos.

Logos means the word, the source, the rational principle that underlies things. The Word. It’s also one of the names given to the man Jesus, the incarnation of the source (God), and the principle that underlies all life.

Biology is the study of life; most of us, happily or unhappily, ended up taking it in high school. If we pull a six degrees to Kevin Bacon, Biology moves from -ology to logia to logos in three degrees. If we take it back to the original root, then Biology is the word of life.

If we approached biology, and all the other ologies, as the word of instead of the field or study of, perhaps we would let go of the teenage boredom that still blinds us and see it for what it truly is: a window into the sanctity of all life.

What’s not to love about that?