branch of medicine concerned with newborn infants, 1960, from neonate "recently born infant" + -ology.
Entries linking to neonatology
neonate n.
"recently born infant," 1905, coined from neo- "new" + Latin natus "born," past participle of nasci "be born" (Old Latin gnasci), from PIE root *gene- "give birth, beget."
-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]