gerontology

borrowed from French gérontologie, from géronto- geronto- + -logie -logy

Note: The French word was apparently introduced by Élie metchnikoff in Études sur la nature humaine: essai de philosophie optimiste (Paris, 1903), p. 386: "Il nous parait très probable que l'étude scientifique de la vieillesse et de la mort qui devra constituer deux branches de la science, la Gérontologie et la Tanatologie, amènera de grandes modifications dans la marche de la période avancée de la vie." ("It appears very likely to us that the scientific study of old age and death that will have to constitute two branches of science, gerontology and thanatology, will bring about great changes in the course of the last period of life.") The term appears as gerontologija in the corresponding Russian text (Ètjudy o prirodě čelověka [Moscow, 1904], p. 214).