ludology

From the Latin ludus (“game”) + -ology. May also be construed as ludo- + -ology, although the prefix ludo- apparently derives from this word.

It also included Gonzalo Frasca's paper, “Ludologists Love Stories Too: Notes from a Debate that Never Took Place”, in which he comes out in defence of ludology and rejects the most extreme critiques by arguing that ludology's raison d'être is not at all to reject stories, but to focus on games.

2009, Amelia Sanz, Literatures in the Digital Era: Theory and Praxis, page 56:

The study of games and other forms of play.


sinology

From sino- (“China”) + -logy (“study of”).

(humanities) The study of the history, language and culture of China; Chinese studies.


Romanist

(humanities) A scholar of Roman history and culture.

The principal magazines devoted to the subject are—Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur (ed. Wolff, Ebert, and Lembcke), later only für romanische Literatur; Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen (ed. Herrig), of a more popular character; Romania (a quarterly, ed. Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, since 1872), contains ariticles of the most eminent Romanists; Revue des Langues Romanes (Montpellier, from 1870 onwards), chiefly devoted to Provençal; Romanische Studien (ed. Boehmer); Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie (ed. Gröber, since 1877); and Romanische Forschungen (ed. Vollmöller, since 1884).

1886, Encyclopaedia Britannica, volume 20, PRU-ROS, page 668:

(humanities) A scholar of Romance languages; a Romanicist.


Japanology

Japanese studies: The study of Japan, its language, culture and history


German studies

(humanities) A field that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms.


English studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language, English linguistics, and English sociolinguistics.


communication studies

Her course will be ‘Communication Studies with Theatre Studies’: God, how tedious, how pointless.

An academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time.


Germanist

Borrowed from German Germanist, along the model of earlier English Romanist (“scholar of Romance languages”). By surface analysis, German + -ist, doublet of Germanicist.

m+

(humanities; dated) A person who studies the Germanic languages, the associated literatures and/or cultures.

germanista

person who studies Germanic languages and cultures

(humanities) A person who specializes in the German language, literature and/or culture of the German-speaking world.


Germanistics

Calque of German Germanistik. By surface analysis, German + -ist + -ics


Russian studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the Russian language, Russian linguistics, and Russian sociolinguistics.


Indology

The academic study of the history, culture, and languages of the Indian subcontinent.


Indo-European studies

The academic study of the Indo-European languages in relation to Proto-Indo-European, and sometimes of related humanities. (This entry is a translation hub.)


Croatian studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the Croatian language, Croatian linguistics, and Croatian sociolinguistics.


Romanology

From Romano- (“Romania, Romanians”) + -ology.

(humanities) The study of Romania and its people.


Romanology

(humanities, rare) Synonym of Romani studies.


American studies

(humanities) an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of the Americas, with a historical emphasis upon the United States, It traditionally incorporating the study of history, literature, and critical theory, but also includes fields as diverse as law, art, the media, film, religious studies, urban studies, women's studies, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, foreign policy and culture of the United States, among others


Iranian studies

(humanities) an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples


Slavic studies

(humanities, US) A field of academic study concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture.


Slavistics

(humanities) Slavic studies/Slavonic studies


Slavonic studies

(humanities, UK, Ireland) Alternative form of Slavic studies


European studies

(humanities) an academic field of study offered by many colleges and universities that focuses on current developments in European integration


Byzantine studies

(humanities) an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, costumes, religion, art, such as literature and music, science, economy, and politics of the Byzantine Empire

byzantologie

study of history, culture, etc. of the Byzantine Empire


Oriental studies

(humanities) an academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology


Hungarian studies

(humanities) A field of study concerned with Hungarian language, literature, ethnology, culture, history or society.

hungaristika

a field of study concerned with Hungarian language, literature, ethnology, culture, history or society


Kartvelian studies

(humanities) a field of humanities covering Kartvelian history, languages, religion and/or culture


Armenian studies

(humanities) a field of humanities covering Armenian history, language and culture


Celtic studies

(humanities) the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to a Celtic people


Africology

(humanities) An interdisciplinary academic discipline that studies the history and culture of African people around the world.


Arabic studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the Arabic language, Arabic linguistics, and Arabic sociolinguistics.


Chinese studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literature written in the Chinese language, Chinese linguistics, and Chinese sociolinguistics.


Japanese studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the Japanese language, Japanese linguistics, and Japanese sociolinguistics.


Korean studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literature written in the Korean language, Korean linguistics, and Korean sociolinguistics.


Chicano studies

(humanities) An interdisciplinary academic discipline concerned with the study of culture relating to Chicano peoples.


Chicana studies

(humanities) an interdisciplinary academic discipline concerned with the study of culture relating to Chicanas.


Black studies

(humanities) An interdisciplinary academic discipline concerned with the study of culture relating to African peoples and the African diaspora.


Anglistics

Modification of German Anglistik, from Anglist (“Anglist”) + -ik (“-ics”).

The history of our English department thus begins with one of the greatest names that Anglistics in America has to offer.

1927, Lawrence Counselman Wroth, editor, The Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine: Published in the Interest of the University and the Alumni, volume 15, Johns Hopkins Alumni Association, page 116:

Regularly on the Continent, and widely in America as well, that part of Anglistics devoted to the editing of texts is called English philology.

1930, Kemp Malone, “The Terminology of Anglistics.”, in The English Journal, volume 19, number 8, →JSTOR, page 643:

(humanities, rare) Synonym of English studies


Canadian studies

(humanities) The academic field that examines topics concerning Canada, including Canadiana, culture, politics, history.


editio princeps

en-noun

editio princeps (plural editiones principes)

From New Latin ēditiō prīnceps (“first edition”), 1800s.

bor

A caller interrupted me yesterday, a most persistent fellow and a dangerous one to the purse of the tyro collector of Americana, though not to me. He was a man of some pretence to classic education, and superficially versed in lore of title, date, and editio princeps.

1903, Mabel Osgood Wright, People of the Whirlpool:

The extract from the Missal of Constance, which was printed before the editio princeps […] does not contain the formulae for Advent, Sundays after Epiphany, Lent and the Sundays after Easter and Pentecost; […]

2004, Thomas Fisch, editor, Primary Readings on the Eucharist, Liturgical Press, →ISBN, footnote, page 34:

If the editio princeps was an attempt to create an authoritative version of the pontifical, such was not yet attainable.

2007, Terence Bailey, Alma Colk Santosuosso, editors, Music in Medieval Europe […] , Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., →ISBN, page 199:

(humanities, printing) The first printed edition of a work previously only published in manuscript form.

eerste druk

first printed edition of a work previously only published as manuscript


Bohemistics

By surface analysis, Bohem(ia) + -ist + -ics


Bulgaristics

The brisk activities in the sphere of Bulgarian studies resulted in a considerable expansion of the interest of specialists and scholars abroad in the various aspects of Bulgaristics.

1992, Donka Alexandrova, India and Bulgaria: cultural relationship, page 98:


Polonistics

Our Polonistics department was located on the corner of Świętokrzyska Street and Jasna, on the third floor; we sat on school benches; it was referred to as Tynelski's school of commercial studies.

2015, Miron Bialoszewski, A Memoir of the Warsaw Uprising:


Ukrainistics

The cultural needs of the Ukrainian community in the domain of academic instruction are primarily met by a number of chairs of Ukrainistics at the State universities in Warsaw, Cracow and Lwow.

1935, Stanislaw J. Paprocki, Minority Affairs and Poland: An Informatory Outline, page 75:


Ukrainian studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of Ukrainian linguistics, sociolinguistics, language and literature, along with Ukrainian history and culture.


Yugoslavistics

As Mira Đordević states, this project, too, was thwarted as a result of political development: “What had once been the subject of Yugoslavistics almost overnight became the object of comparative studies” (Đordević 1999: 341).

2006, Darko Dolinar, Marko Juvan, editors, Writing Literary History: Selected Perspectives from Central Europe:


Czech studies

An academic study of the Czech language, literature or culture. (This entry is a translation hub.)

捷克研究

academic study of the Czech language, etc.


Polish studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the Polish language, Polish linguistics, and Polish sociolinguistics.


game studies

Game-studies scholars (there are such things) like to point out that games tend to reflect the societies in which they are created and played.

2012 April 4, Sam Anderson, “Just One More Game ...”, in The New York Times Magazine:


medievalistics

(humanities, rare) The study of the Middle Ages; medieval studies.


Balkan studies

A field of academic study concerned with the Balkans.


Balkanistics

By surface analysis, Balkan + -ist + -ics.


Russistics

By surface analysis, Russ(ian) + -ist + -ics.


Syriac studies

(humanities) The study of the Syriac language and Syriac Christianity.


Hispanistics

By surface analysis, Hispan(ia) + -ist + -ics


Australian studies

(humanities) The study of Australians and Australian culture.


New Zealand studies

(humanities) The study of New Zealand, New Zealanders, and Zealandic culture.


Latin American studies

(humanities) The study of Latin America, Latin Americans, and Latin American cultures.


Aquinas

Ellipsis of Thomas Aquinas; an Italian philosopher, theologian and jurist during the 13th century.


Spanish studies

Holonyms: see Thesaurus:philology

The study of Spanish and its literature.


Bengal studies

The academic study of the history, culture, and languages of Bengal.


Romani studies

(humanities) A field of study concerned with the culture, history and language of the Romani people.


Scandinavianist

Scandinavianists (plural)
Scandinavist (alternative)

For the ideology, from Scandinav(ism) + -ist; in the meaning scholar of Scandinavian studies, Scandinavian + -ist with analogy with earlier Romanicist, Germanicist, Anglicist; likely reinforced by German Skandinavist.

The lists of new members published regularly in our notes sections do not indicate that very many of the men and women in the field are making determined efforts to increase our membership. Cooperative efforts—say, at the rate of five new members per active Scandinavianist plus our treasurer's fine efforts to increase our library subscriptions—would solve the financial problem.

1962, Walter Johnson, “Managing Editor's Report”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 34, number 3, →JSTOR, page 213:

Seip presented arguments of four kinds to prove that this antecedent manuscript was of Norwegian origin. [...] There was an immediate rejoinder from the well-known German Scandinavianist, Hans Kuhn, to the effect that examples of similar Norvagisms could be found also in other Icelandic manuscripts.

1963, Lee M. Hollander, “Recent Work and Views on the Poetic Edda”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 35, number 2, →JSTOR, page 107:

Although the work does not pretend to be a scholarly contribution per se, it is doubtful that any Scandinavianist could not profit by studying this momentous (à la an Enc. Brit. yearbook in scope) work.

1964, Svein Øksenholt, “Dagligliv i Danmark i det nittende og tyvende århundrede. Vol. 1, by A. Steensberg [Book Review]”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 36, number 3, →JSTOR, page 249:

What a Scandinavianist, on the other hand, can learn from this book about the history, the manufacture, and the study of maps is no less worthy of remark.

1966, Erik Wahlgren, “The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, by R. A. Skelton, T. E. Marston, G. D. Painter, & A. O. Vietor [Book Review]”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 38, number 1, →JSTOR, page 64:

Now, the bluff and hearty Scandinavianist will say: "All very well and good, but what does Professor Forster's book have to do with me?" The answer is threefold: 1) Forster reminds us of an important tradition in European literature, of which Scandinavia is a part; 2) his bibliographies alone should earn him the gratitude of the literary scholar; and 3) although he says nothing whatsoever about Scandinavia, his book should make the members of our guild reflect upon the Scandinavian situation.

1972, George C. Schoolfield, “The Poet's Tongues: Multilingualism in Literature, by Leonard Forster [Book Review]”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 44, number 1, →JSTOR, pages 156-157:

And finally, the instructor, unless he happens to be a Scandinavianist by training or by birth, must devote much of a summer to developing sufficient reading skill to stay at least several jumps ahead of the best students in his class. Byt as most Germanic philologists have already noticed, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are very easy to handle if no more than competent reading skill is required.

1973, Jere Fleck, “Scandinavian Studies and German Department Enrollments”, in Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German, volume 6, number 1, →DOI, page 68:

German Scandinavianist Klaus Bohnen asserts that German naturalism would have developed very differently without Brandes' introduction of the works of, among others, Ibsen, Taine, Zola, and Tolstoy to Germany, to say nothing of how seminal an impact Brandes had on German literary history by introduction, for example, Viennese writers to J. P. Jacobsen's work, and Friedrich Nietzsche to the writings of Kierkegaard.

2019, Julie K Allen, “Georg Brandes in Berlin: Marketing the Modern Breakthrough in Wilhelmine Germany.”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 91, number 4, →DOI, page 469:

Scandinavian studies
Scandinavian studies

(humanities, jargon) A specialist in Scandinavian studies.


Scandinavianist

Holders of an M.A. degree who entered the title of their thesis will find that it has been listed, as there is no reason to believe that such research is without interest for the general North American Scandinavist community.

1975, Donald E. Askey, Gene G. Gage, Robert T. Rovinsky, “The Humanities”, in Scandinavian Studies, volume 47, number 2, →JSTOR, pages 151-152:

(humanities, jargon) Pertaining to Scandinavian studies.


Scandinavist

For the ideology, from Scandinav(ism) + -ist; in the meaning scholar of Scandinavian studies, Scandinav(ia) + -ist with analogy with earlier Romanist, Germanist, Anglist; likely reinforced by German Skandinavist.

But his successor, Dr. Daniel B. Shumway, Professor of Germanic Philology and head of the German department, was just as staunch a Scandinavist as his predecessor.

1937, A. J. Uppvall, “The Study of Scandinavian Languages and LIteratures at the University of Pennsylvania, 1895-1935: A Retrospect and a Prospect”, in Scandinavian Studies and Notes, volume 14, number 7, →JSTOR, page 179:

Your reviewer, being more particularly a Scandinavist, would like to add a few details from his own field.

1947, L. M. Hollander, “Huskult og Hinsidighetstro. Nye Studier over Fedrekult i Norge, by E. Birkeli [Book Review]”, in The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 46, number 2, →JSTOR, page 212:

The old editions are no longer adequate, and this handsome volume should replace its predecessors on the shelves of every Scandinavist and all libraries with a Scandinavian or drama section.

1982, Laurie Thompson, “Literature”, in The Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies, volume 44, →JSTOR, page 1087:

Basing his analysis on the work of the famous Danish Scandinavist, Axel Olrik, McTurk concluded that it is not so much the general style of “Cynewulf and Cyneheard” which bears the stamp of orality, as its frequently obeying the laws which Olrik had formulated with respect to the unilinear progression of oral narrative.

1997, Rolf H, Jr Bremmer, “The Germanic Context of "Cynewulf and Cyneheard" Revisited”, in Neophilologus, volume 81, number 3, Dordrecht: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISSN, page 446:

All together, it is an outstanding work of reference, which every Scandinavist will want to have on his/her worktable.

1998, Edgar C Polome, “Norsk Referanse-Grammatik, edited by Jan Terje Faarlund, et al. [Book Review]”, in Journal of Indo-European Studies, volume 26, number 3/4, Washington: Institute for the Study of Man, →ISSN, page 500:

Twenty-eight contributors from Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the USA (one classical scholar, one Scandinavist and one Byzantinologist among them) presented the Russianist from the University of Bergen (Norway) with their essays on Russian folklore, medieval Russian literature, Gogol, Leskov, Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Pasternak and Bakhtin, as well as on other related cultural topics.

1998, Andrei Rogachevskii, “Celebrating Creativity: Essays in Honour of Jostein Bortnes, edited by Knut Andreas Grimstad and Ingunn Lunde. [Book Review]”, in Europe-Asia Studies, volume 50, number 5, Abingdon, →ISSN, page 931:

The Soviet philologist, Scandinavist Mikhail Steblin-Kamensky noted that “myth is not a genre, an indefinite form, but a content, as if independent of the form in which it is expressed. [...]"

2021, Bagdagul N Zhanibekova, Beisenova, Zhainagul S, “Anuar Alimzhanov’s Aesthetic Position and its Artistic Realization”, in International Journal of Society, Culture & Language, volume 9, number 2, Raleigh: International Journal of Society, Culture and Language, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2022-04-19, page 205:

(humanities, jargon) Alternative form of Scandinavianist (“specialist in Scandinavian studies”)


Scandinavist

With him the pendulum is swinging away from the Germanist-Scandinavist tradition of the older generation as it is doing also in the University of Surrey [...]

1975, Elias Bredsdorff, editor, Scandinavica, volume 14, Academic Press, page 99:

The study will, of course, be valuable reading for those interested in Swedish orthography, and for the Scandinavist scholar, but certainly not only for them.

1998, Anne-Marie Andreasson, “Orthographic Codes and Code-Switching: A Study in 16th Century Swedish Orthography, by Alexander Zheltukhin [Book Review]”, in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, volume 97, number 4, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, →ISSN, page 614:

Nevertheless, despite the continuity in staff, the new structures resulted in increased attention being paid to modern Scandinavian literature, which accompanied the establishment of Scandinavist curricula.

2022, Roland Scheel, “Scandinavian Studies in Germany”, in Humanities, volume 11, number 4, Basel: MDPI, →DOI, page 88 (4):


Vietnamese studies

(humanities) An academic discipline that includes the study of literature written in the Vietnamese language, Vietnamese linguistics, Vietnamese history, and Vietnamese ethnology.


Taiwan studies

(humanities) A multi-disciplinary academic discipline that includes the study of literature written in the Taiwanese language, Taiwan and Taiwanese history.