"science of hearing and treatment of deafness," 1946, from audio- + -ology. Related: Audiologist.
Entries linking to audiology
audio-
word-forming element meaning "sound, hearing," from combining form of Latin audire "to hear" (from PIE root *au- "to perceive"); used in English word formation by 1890s.
-ology
word-forming element indicating "branch of knowledge, science," now the usual form of -logy. Originally used c. 1800 in nonce formations (commonsensology, etc.), it gained legitimacy by influence of the proper formation in geology, mythology, etc., where the -o- is a stem vowel in the previous element.
The second element is prop[erly] -logy (-logue, etc.), the -o- belonging to the preceding element; but the accent makes the apparent element in E[nglish] to be -ology, which is hence often used as an independent word. [Century Dictionary]