-graphy
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-graphy or -ography or -igraphy (etc.) is an English suffix derived from the Greek verb γραφειν (graphein), "to write", plus the abstract noun suffix -ia in Greek, which passed through Latin, then French, before becoming English -y.
In other contexts, -ography is not a suffix but an informal word (noun form -graphic) denoting a field of study or academic discipline ending in the noun combining form -ography. The word ography is therefore a back-formation from the names of these disciplines. The word ography is thus misleading, as the is actually part of the Greek root that receives the -graphy ending. For example, the bio- root of biography stems from Greek βιος (bio s), life. This is why some of the words listed below do not end in -ography (such as calligraphy).
Some non-study ographies are the following:
- 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
- Cryptography, the art of hiding the content of information
- Floriography, the language of flowers
- Orthography, rules of correct writing
- Photography, the art, practice, or occupation of taking and printing photographs
- Steganography, the art of writing hidden messages
- Stenography, the art of writing in shorthand
- Tasseography, the art of reading tea leaves
Some study-related ographies are the following:
- 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
- Orography, the science and study of mountains
- Reprography
- Selenography, the study and mapping of the physical features of the Moon
- Uranography, the study and mapping of stars and space objects
- Xerography
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