Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The science of all that is dug up, whether organic or inorganic: formerly specifically applied to that part of geology which treats of fossils (paleontology).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An old name for paleontology.
  • noun An old name for mineralogy and geology.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete paleontology
  • noun obsolete mineralogy and geology

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek

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Examples

  • "Hence the order he proposed to follow was not that commonly followed in treatises on oryctology, namely, systematic, following the classes and the orders of the animal and vegetable kingdom, but in a chronological order, in such a way as to show that the classes, so far as it was possible to conjecture with any probability, were established after or in consequence of the different revolutions of the earth.

    Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution His Life and Work 1872

Comments

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  • "Now hist. and rare. The branch of science concerned with rocks, minerals, and fossils dug out of the earth." (OED)

    September 9, 2008

  • Same root as Oryctolagus, the genus of the European rabbit.

    September 9, 2008