Dictionary

phrenology en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /frənˈɑlədʒi/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English phreno- Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *lóǵos Proto-Hellenic *lógos Ancient Greek λόγος (lógos) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-íā Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek -λογῐ́ᾱ (-logĭ́ā)bor. Latin -logialbor. French -logiebor. English -logy English phrenology From phreno- + -logy.

Meanings

1. (countable, historical, uncountable) The pseudoscience which studies the relationships between a person's character and the morphology (structure) of the skull.
   • Phrenology was the practice of correlating bumps on a skull with mental powers and attributes of character. 2019, Bill Bryson, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Black Swan (2020), page 86:
   • MR. BURNS: Who could forget such a monstrous visage? She has the sloping brow and cranial bumpage of the career criminal. MR. SMITHERS: Uh, sir, phrenology was dismissed as quackery 160 years ago. 1995 November 19, Richard Appel, “Mother Simpson”, in The Simpsons, Harry Shearer (actor):
   • Phrenology involves feeling the bumps in the skull to determine an individual's psychological attributes.
   • One significance weakness of phrenology in the eyes of most anatomists, as Anne Harrington has shown, was that the brain comprised two structurally identical cerebral hemispheres, separated by a longitudinal fissure, whereas phrenologists held that the material sub-stratum of various mental faculties was located in only one hemisphere, and not its twin. 2020 October 5, Paul Turnbull, “Thinking About Craniometry- The Racial Turn”, in Paul Turnbull:

Forms

Deriveds

phrenological · phrenologize · phrenologist

Relateds

cephalomancy · physiognomy · have one's head read

Synonyms

cranioscopy

Translations (39)

cs frenologie (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · hy գանգագուշակություն (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · it frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · id frenologi (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · pl frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · mn френологи (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · bg френология (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · hu frenológia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ru френоло́гия (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ko 골상학 (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · lt frenologija (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · sk frenológia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · is höfuðlagsfræði (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · hy գանգագիտություն (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · cmn 骨相學 /骨相学 (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · kk френология (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · tr frenoloji (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · da frenologi (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · et frenoloogia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · sv frenologi (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · uk френологія (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · pt frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · af frenologie (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ast frenoloxía (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · vi não tướng học (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · gl frenoloxía (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · eu frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · hi कपालविद्या (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · nl frenologie (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · fi frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · es frenología (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · uz frenologiya (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · no frenologi (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · vo frenolog (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · fr phrénologie (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ja 骨相学 (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ro frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · ca frenologia (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology) · de Phrenologie (the science or discredited pseudo-science of phrenology)