Informally, an
ography is a field of study or academic discipline ending in the suffix
-ography. The word
ography is therefore a
back-formation from the names of these disciplines. Such words are formed from
Greek or
Latin roots with the terminal
-graphy derived from the Greek verb
γραφειν (
graphein),
to write. The word
ography is thus misleading as the 'o' is actually part of the word stem that receives the -graphy ending. For example, the
bio part of
biography stems from Greek
βιος (
bios),
life. This is why some of the words do not end in
-ography (such as
calligraphy).
Some non-study ographies are:
please add examples of non-study ographies to this list
- Autobiography, the biography of a person written by that person
- Bibliography, a list of writings used or considered by an author in preparing a particular work
- Biography, an account of a person's life
- Calligraphy, the art of fine handwriting
- Choreography, the art of creating and arranging dances or ballets
- Photography, the art, practice, or occupation of taking and printing photographs
- Pornography,
please add more examples of real fields of study ending with -ography to this list
- Areography[?], the study of the physical features of the planet Mars
- Cartography, the study and making of maps
- Demography, the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and vital statistics
- Geography, the study of spatial relationships on the Earth's surface
- Hagiography, the study of saints
- Historiography, the study of the study of history
- Oceanography, the exploration and scientific study of the ocean and its phenomena
- Oreography[?], the science and study of mountains
See also: