polemology

/ˌpɒləˈmɒləd͡ʒi/

polemology means the study of human conflict and war. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

polemology is pronounced /ˌpɒləˈmɒləd͡ʒi/.

Why “polemology” is a great word

POLEMOLOGY — [Noun] The systematic, scholarly study of war as a human phenomenon, analyzing its causes, conduct, and consequences. From Ancient Greek πόλεμος (pólemos, "war") + -logy (suffix indicating a subject of study). First attested in English in 1870. Unlike military science (which focuses on the practical application and technology of warfare) or peace studies (which normatively seeks pathways to harmony), polemology is the dispassionate, descriptive anatomy of conflict itself. It is the cartography of a dark continent, charting the terrain of treaties broken and borders redrawn; the forensic accounting of rusting tank battalions in a field; the statistical mapping of refugee flows across a border. It is the systematic cataloguing of our oldest and most terrible craft, hoping to understand it precisely so it might one day be rendered obsolete.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πόλεμος (pólemos, “war; battle”) + -logy (suffix indicating the study of a particular subject). The word is cognate with French polémologie. By surface analysis, polemo- + -log + -y.

noun

The study of human conflict and war.“POLEMOLOGY. The Principles of War exhibited in the Practice of the Camp, and as developed in a Series of General Orders of the Duke of Wellington; with parallel Orders of George II. Duke of Marlborough, &c. &c. 8vo.”