If you’re a zoologist drawn to study animals that live (or supposedly live) in lakes, what you’re involved in is “dracontology.” It sounds like it ought to be the study of dragons, which is because it’s derived from the Greek word “drakon,” which means “serpent” and is also the root of “dragon.” By the way, another word that sounds similar — “draconian,” meaning something, like a punishment, that’s excessively harsh — has a different derivation. It’s from a person, “Draco.” He was a legislator in Athens around 700 BCE, and evidently he was quite a piece of work.
Dracontology has been adopted by people who study one particular animal supposedly living in a lake: the Loch Ness Monster. Dracontology also covers the study — or maybe these should be called searches rather than studies — of the alleged creature living in Lake Memphrémagog on the border between Vermont and Quebec. Here we have the interesting case of lake myths being associated with a word that at least seems to describe a legitimate scientific field. Evidently someone named Jacques Boisvert, a resident of Quebec and a hobbyist searching for his favorite lake monster, actually made a public request for a word describing his pastime. The story goes that the word was coined by a monk at the monastery of St. Benoit-du-Lac. It’s possibly even true; “dracontology” isn’t otherwise a recognized branch of zoology.
But if you’re not just interested in lake monsters, but dragons and yetis and all manner of other unknown creatures too, what you’re interested in is “cryptozoology.” This word is a straightforward combination of “crypto” (hidden) and “zoology” (the study of animals). “Cryptozoology” is a pretty recent term, but “zoology” itself dates from the 1600s. Interestingly, there’s also “teratology,” which is the study of monsters, which would seem to cover at least some of cryptozoology’s field as well.
While “dracontology” isn’t really part of zoology, there are specialists who study particular sorts of animals. Helminthology, for example, is the study of worms, and herpetology is the study of reptiles. If you’re interested in fish, that’s ichthyology (which is also called piscatology). And I’m not giving any clues about what insectologists might study. But even there you find subdivisions. There are a great many sorts of insects, after all, and lepidopterology is the study of only some of them: butterflies and moths.
You’re likely to encounter butterflies in a garden, even if you’re there for your limacology research — which you’d be doing if you were into slugs. You might also be visiting because of ophiology, hoping to find some snakes.
Speaking of subdivisions, a zoologist who specializes in mammology, then narrows it down to therology and finally to hippology would have started with mammals, decided on wild mammals, and then settled on just wild horses (not hippopotami; they’re called that because their name means “river horse”).
As for the study of actual dragons, dracontology is already taken, so at least one source would suggest that what those folks are engaged in is cryptolacustribestiology. In some accounts, dragons are sentient, magical creatures that can talk, so maybe if you find one and say cryptolacustribestiology three times fast, you’ll win the treasure! (Publisher’s note: the author of this piece is not a licensed cryptolacustribestiologist and opinions expressed are not to be taken as cryptolacustribestiological advice.)
