cereology

English

WOTD – 16 January 2017

A crop circle in the form of a triskelion

Etymology

From Ceres (“Roman goddess of agriculture”) +‎ -ology.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪ.ə.ɹɪˈɒ.lə.dʒi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪ.ə.ɹɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: ce‧re‧o‧lo‧gy

Noun

cereology (uncountable)

1. The investigation, or practice, of creating crop circles.
   • 1990 October–December, New Scientist, volume 128, London: New Science Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 61:

     […] the array of experts who have collaborated to found the Centre for Crop Circle Studies and co-author The Crop Circle Enigma, the parents of cereology […]

   • 1991, “Editorial notes”, in The Cereologist: The Journal for Crop Circles Studies, Shepton Mallet, Somerset: The Cereologist, OCLC 877349523, page 5; quoted in Gordon Stein, “Crop Circles”, in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1996, ISBN 978-1-57392-021-6, page 185, column 1:

     The result of all this has been to throw the world of cereology into a state of total confusion. All its previous certainties have been demolished.

   • 1991 September 23, Leon Jaroff, “It happens in the best circles”, in Time‎^[1], archived from the original on 11 November 2016:

     Saucer enthusiasts argued that the cropland patterns marked the landing spots of UFOs bearing visitors from space. Believers in the paranormal claimed the circles radiated mysterious energy forces. The patterns spawned a kind of intellectual cottage industry: no fewer than 35 Britons claim to be experts on the phenomenon. A new scientific discipline, cereology, emerged. It is practiced by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a privately funded group headed by Wiltshire-based physicist Terence Meaden.

   • 2003, Colin Andrews, Stephen J. Spignesi, “The Path”, in Crop Circles: Signs of Contact, Franklin Lakes, N.J.: New Page Books, →ISBN, page 29, column 1:

     The world needed to be educated about the mysteries of cereology, and that knowledge base had not been disseminated widely enough for my more "unusual" theories to be accepted, or at least considered, with reason and open-mindedness.

Alternative forms

• cerealogy

Related terms

• cereologist, cerealogist

Further reading

• crop circle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia