malacology

English

Etymology

From French malacologie, contraction of malacozoologie, from the (obsolete) taxonomic name Malacozoa + French -ologie (“-ology”), Malacozoa being in turn from Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) + ζῷον (zôion, “animal”).

Equivalent to malaco- +‎ -logy.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌmæ.ləˈkɒl.ə.d͡ʒi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmæ.ləˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Noun

malacology (uncountable)

1. (zoology) The study of molluscs.
   • 1832, Richard Owen, Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus‎^[1], page 2:

     But the circumstances which the Baron Cuvier† so justly adduces as tending to retard the progress of Malacology in general, seem especially to have contributed to obscure the history of Nautilus Pompilius.

   • 1850, William King, A Monograph of the Permian Fossils of England, published 2014, page 201:

     […] their chronogeny will long remain one of the most difficult problems in Malacology.

   • 1995, Galina A. Klevezal, M.V. Mina, Recording Structures of Mammals, page 231:

     The first steps in the age determination of mammals by the number of annual layers were made when, in ichthyology and malacology, it has already become to routine practice to use annual layers for ageing animals and for back-calculating the growth of individuals.

Synonyms

• malacozoology

Derived terms

• malacologist
• malacological

Translations

study of molluscs

• Bulgarian: наука за мекотелите f (nauka za mekotelite)
• Catalan: malacologia f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 軟體動物學 / 软体动物学 (zh) (ruǎntǐdòngwùxué)

• Dutch: malacologie (nl)
• Finnish: nilviäistutkimus, malakologia
• French: malacologie (fr) f
• Galician: malacoloxía (gl) f
• German: Malakologie (de) f
• Hungarian: malakológia (hu)
• Italian: malacologia (it) f
• Japanese: 軟体動物学 (ja) (なんたいどうぶつがく, nantaidōbutsugaku)
• Korean: 연체동물학 (yeonchedongmulhak)
• Polish: malakologia (pl) f, malakozoologia (pl) f
• Portuguese: malacologia (pt) f
• Russian: малаколо́гия (ru) f (malakológija)
• Spanish: malacología (es) f
• Vietnamese: nhuyễn thể học

See also

• conchology