Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The study of the deformation and flow of matter.

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

  • noun physics The branch of physics that studies the deformation and flow of matter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the branch of physics that studies the deformation and flow of matter

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1920, coined by Eugene C. Bingham, a professor at Lafayette College, following a suggestion by a colleague, Markus Reiner; inspired by aphorism Τα Πάντα ῥεῖ ta panta rhei “everything flows” by Simplicius of Cilicia. Formed from Ancient Greek ῥέω (rheō, "flow") +‎ -logy (“study of”) (suffix ultimately from Ancient Greek).

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