ontology

Meaning

Noun

• The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
• In a subject view, or a world view, the set of conceptual or material things or classes of things that are recognised as existing, or are assumed to exist in context, and their interrelations; in a body of theory, the ontology comprises the domain of discourse, the things that are defined as existing, together with whatever emerges from their mutual implications.
• The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
• A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
• A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.

Origin

• Originally Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus)), from Ancient Greek ὤν ("being"), present participle of εἰμί + λόγος.
• First known English use 1663: Archelogia philosophica nova; or, New principles of Philosophy. Containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks or Ontology, Dynamilogy or a Discourse of Power, Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology, Physicks or Natural philosophy, by Gideon Harvey (1636–1702), London, Thomson, 1663.
• Popularized as a philosophical term by German philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754).