micrology

English

Etymology

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Sense 1 is borrowed directly from Ancient Greek μικρολογία (mikrología, “pettiness, stinginess, triviality”), with the suffix reinterpreted as -logy.

Sense 2 is micro- +‎ -logy, effectively the same etymological components.

Noun

micrology (usually uncountable, plural micrologies)

1. The study of trivialities and minutiae, or focusing on the small details rather than the whole picture.
2. That part of science that deals with microscopic objects, or depends on microscopic observation; microscopy.

References

• “micrology”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.