ecology, n.

: Oxford English Dictionary

16/03/2016, 16:50

Oxford English Dictionary | The definitive record of the English

language

ecology, n.
Pronunciation: Brit.

/kldi/ , U.S.

/ikldi/ , /kldi/

Forms: 18 oekology, 18 ecology, 18 oecology (now rare).

Frequency (in current use):
Etymology: A borrowing from German. Etymon: German Oecologie.
< German Oecologie ( E. Haeckel Generelle Morphologie (1866) II. 286; now kologie ) < ancient Greek
house, dwelling (see OECIST n.) + German -logie -LOGY comb. form. Compare French cologie (c1874).
A supposed use of ecology in a letter by Thoreau dated 1858 represents a misreading of geology : see Science (1965) 13 Aug. 707 and
Bull. Thoreau Soc. (1973) No. 123. 6.
On the spelling with e- rather than oe- see discussion at O n.1

1.
a. The branch of biology that deals with the relationships between
living organisms and their environment. Also: the relationships
themselves, esp. those of a specified organism. See also BIOECOLOGY n.
1875 Academy 18 Sept. 309 Seeing that the scope of Botany differs from that of Zoology only in the
fact that the one deals with plants, the other with animals, we might expect that physiology,
morphology, oecology, and taxonomy in each would have assumed about the same relative
importance to one another.
1893 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 16 Sept. 613/1 cology, which uses all the knowledge it can obtain from the
other two [sc. physiology and morphology], but chiefly rests on the exploration of the endless
varied phenomena of animal and plant life as they manifest themselves under natural conditions.
1896 Appletons' Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 185 Botany..especially with reference to the physiology and
ecology of plants.
1904 C. L. LAURIE Flowering Plants 6 The study of plants that grow together, forming plant
associations, in some respects the most interesting part of Ecology.
1916 F. E. CLEMENTS Plant Succession 73 It is one of the most important tasks of ecology to determine
the root and shoot relations of communal plants.
1931 H. G. WELLS Work, Wealth & Happiness (1932) i. 29 Economics..is spoken of in the Science of
Life as a branch of ecology; it is the ecology of the human species.
1941 W. H. AUDEN New Year Let. I. 23 And grasped in its complexity The Catholic ecology.
1967 Listener 6 Apr. 459/3 In different ecologies territorial systems will vary or even be absent
altogether.
1980 Arch. Oral Biol. 26 735/2 It was our desire to determine if and how the pH fluctuation in the oral
environment could influence oral ecology by exerting differential effects on bacterial adhesion.
2004 F. LAWRENCE Not on Label ii. 57 Intensive farming in England has also polluted groundwater,
damaging the ecology of streams, rivers and lakes and ruining coastal waters.

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ecology, n. : Oxford English Dictionary

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b. Chiefly Sociol. The study of the relationships between people, social

groups, and their environment; (also) the system of such relationships
in an area of human settlement. Freq. with modifying word, as
cultural ecology, social ecology, urban ecology.
Recorded earliest in human ecology n. at HUMAN adj. and n. Special uses 2.

1908 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 14 395 Human ecology, a study of the geographic conditions of human
culture.
1923 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 29 356 Among the research projects presented were..the ecology of the city in
relation to politics.
1926 Social Forces 5 251/1 The growth, organization, problems, and prospects of cities and their
inhabitants. Including the social psychology, social processes, and social ecology in city life.
1959 A. INKELES in L. Broom et al. Sociol. Today xi. 274 Ecology, population statistics, and crime rates
are all sociology.
1976 I. M. LEWIS Social Anthropol. in Perspective vi. 164 [They] are not as simple-minded as some
anthropologists of the cultural ecology school; they recognize that fighting and feud are not
restricted to the dry seasons.
1991 K. P. WILKINSON Community in Rural Amer. i. 23 While characteristics of the local ecology
certainly can influence interaction, it is the social interaction that first delineates and then
maintains the local ecology as a unit.
2004 Contemp. Sociol. 33 330/1 [He] frames his study using urban ecology theories to show how
unusual faith communities emerged in Four Corners as a result of in- and out-migration.

c. In extended use: the interrelationship between any system and its

environment; the product of this.
Cf. also clinical ecology n. at CLINICAL adj. Additions 4.

1976 Language 52 27 It violates 21 in two ways: it alters the NP-ecology of the configuration it leaves,
and it alters that of the one it moves into.
1980 Daily Tel. 11 Mar. 18 A weak BBC television would be disastrous for the ecology of British
television.
1989 C. STOLL Cuckoo's Egg iii. 15 Livermore usually has to write their own operating systems, forming
a bizarre software ecology.
2006 J. LEIGH & D. WOODHOUSE Cricket Lexicon 199 Rough: a notable element in the ecology of the
longer game, in which the secondary purpose of the fast men is to leave something for the leftarm spinner in particular to exploit.

2. The study of or concern for the effect of human activity on the

environment; advocacy of restrictions on industrial and agricultural
development as a political movement; (also) a political movement
dedicated to this. Cf. deep ecology n. at DEEP adj. Additions.

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[1963 A. HUXLEY (title) The politics of ecology.]

1970 Nevada State Jrnl. 18 Jan. 24 (headline) It's the top topic for everyone nowecology.
1974 D. RATHER & G. P. GATES Palace Guard i. 6 Some of the leaders wound up in jail..still others,
buckling under pressure, turned their attention to less threatening issues, like ecology.
1986 New Socialist Sept. 36/1 The strongest organised hesitation before socialism is perhaps the
diverse movement variously identified as ecology or the the greens.
1990 Current Hist. Oct. 323/2 This is the ecology-oriented (or Green) movement of the Ukraine, which
held its organizing congress in October, 1989, although it had already been functioning for about
two years.
2002 R. WEBBER Younger Evangelicals II. v. 89 Some older evangelicals have dismissed ecology as a
nonissue because they believe the world and its history will soon end in the second coming.

COMPOUNDS
attrib. Of or relating to ecological issues such as industrial pollution
considered in a political context; spec. applied to various political
movements (esp. in western Europe) which represent the environmental
or green interest (GREEN adj. 13). Freq. in ecology movement,
ecology party.
1969 Amer. Speech 44 307 If someone becomes involved in an ecology project, he would be an ecofreak.
1970 Nevada State Jrnl. 18 Jan. 24/8 Three University of Nevada professors, who have been interested
in conservation for years, wholeheartedly agree that the ecology movement is in the hands of the
nation's young.
1970 Daily Messenger (Canandaigua, N.Y.) 1 Sept. 3/1 She suggests that Ottinger use the name Ecology
Party.
1970 Environmental Quality Mag. 1 I. 30/2 Write to Granny..and tell her about your ecology activities
and ideasWear your ecology symbol [sc. a pin] to promote a better environment.
1973 Antioch Rev. 32 III. 449 Ecologists as scientists may or may not share the perspectives of the
ecology movement.
1980 J. F. PILAT Ecol. Politics 73 The United Kingdom has no significant ecological parties; the Ecology
party recently had only 600 members.
1985 Observer 22 Sept. 2/8 The Ecology Party changed its name to the Green Party at is annual
conference in Dover.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008).

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