# physicology
## English
### Etymology

From physico- +‎ -logy.

### Noun

physicology (uncountable)
* (archaic) physics
** 1831, Benjamin Humphrey Smart, An Outline of Sematology; or, an Essay Towards Establishing a New Theory of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric:Physicology, far more comprehensive than the sense to which Physiology is fixed, would in this case signify the doctrine of the nature of all things whatever which exist independently of the mind's conception of them, and of the human will; which things include all whose nature we grow acquainted with by experience, and can know in no other way, and therefore include the mind, and God; since of the mind as well as of sensible things we know the nature only by experience, and since, abstracted from Revelation, we know the existence of a God only by experiencing His providence.
** 1839, Thomas Curtis, The London encyclopaedia:metaphysics has hitherto been a science merely in name, since it has abandoned physicology, and taught to satisfy itself with mere abstractions.
* The study of how the body works; physiology.
** 1911, R. H. Robinson, “Insanity”, in Dominion Medical Monthly and Ontario Medical Journal, page 191:Physicology implies that much knowledge of the body, whether it be exemplified or not, and in order to obtain the best results the body must be kept free from habits; such habits as tobacco, morphine, cocaine, chloral, liquor, and many others.
** 1914, Report of the Attorney General of the State of Washington, page 391:Every nurse desiring to style herself a registered nurse in the state of Washington shall make application to the nurses' examining board for examination for registration, such examination to consist of questions in surgical nursing, contagions, materia medica, dietietics, medical nursing, obstetrics and gynecology, anatomy, physicology and hygiene , and at the time of making such application applicant shall pay to the treasurer of said board five dollars, no portion of said fee to be returned.
** 1992, Bioelectromagnetics - Volume 13, page 15:Just as pharmacology has its roots in biochemistry, "physicology" will have its roots in biophysics and engineering.
** 2009, Manju Yadav, Computational Biochemistry, page 195:Many other aspects of human physicology also exhibit daily rhythms, including body temperature, urine production, hormone secretion, and skin cell division.
* The study of human behavior based on physical phenomena; An attempt to study psychology and sociology without resorting to abstract hypothetical variables.
** 1984, Personality Psychology in Europe - Volume 6, page 165:Physicology defines socialization as a purely molecular phenomenon. Instead of seeing socialization as an interpersonal exchange of abstract norms, concepts, or cultural information, physicology redefines it in terms of the skilful exchanges of patterns of reflected light, sound, smell, and other plainly physical parameters.
** 1999, Louie S. Harrie, Problems of Drug Dependence 1996, page 268:Physicology sees humans as complex carbon-based molecular organizations whose development and behavior depends on DNA instructions and on how these instructions are modulated by, say, hormones in the nonlinear dynamic interaction with an entirely physico-chemical environment (Nyborg 1996).
** 2013, Philip A. Vernon, The Neuropsychology of Individual Differences, page 98:Physicology maintains that it is highly unlikely that physical selective forces can have an effect on mental entities or that behavior as such can be a target for physical forces.

#### Related terms

* physicological
* physicologist

### References

* “physicology”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.