Spathology

[Guest]

I have a question about the word spathology. I have looked this word up in the dictionary. It is not listed in any of the editions that I was able to get a hold of. I also looked it up on the internet. The hits that pertained to swords were only linked to the HACA site. Other hits were a combination of pathology with something else (i.e. speech pathology). I looked up the greek word for sword and found spathi and xifos. My question is what reference was used to know that spathology was the correct word for the study of swords?

[John_Clements]

Yes, that's right. I felt we needed a word for the study and classification of sword forms. I bounced the idea off the late Ewart Oakeshott and he happily called it a "spelndid idea."
So I used the Greek words for sword and knowledge or study.

JC
"Spathologist"