Our association has recently elected a “green queen” who is tackling all things environmental, and both ecological and environmental cropped up. And I got curious.
It seems that this “word confusion” is all about studies on nature and are based on the environment.
I know, you’re shocked. There is, however, a slight differentiation between the two.
Ecological is about studying the relationships between living organisms: humans and animals, animals and plants, plants and organisms.
Environmental is all about protecting both humans and the environment from each other. It goes both ways and includes negative factors, such as climate change and pollution.
Credit to: Ecology
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Ecological | Environmental |
|---|---|
Ecological Levels by Siyavula Education is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr. |
Workers Clean Up After Oil Spill on Coast is under the Public Domain Mark 1.0 license, via Picryl. — Oil spills are an environmental disaster. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Adjective | Adjective |
| [Environmental Science] Relating to or concerned with the relation of living organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings
[Environmental Science] Of a practice, policy, product, etc., tending to benefit or cause minimal damage to the environment |
Relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition
Relating to or arising from a person’s surroundings
|
| Examples: | |
| Pollution is posing a serious threat to the ecological balance of the oceans.
It was one of the world’s worst ecological disasters. The destruction of the rain forest is but one example of an ecological disaster. |
Acid rain may have caused major environmental damage.
Their main source of income is environmental tourism. Those trains that run by the house are environmental noise. The spill will have disastrous environmental effects. A friend died of cancer from an environmental illness due to childhood exposure. Environmental groups plan to stage a protest during the conference. |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: ecologic Adverb: ecologically Noun: ecologist, ecology |
Adjective: interenvironmental, nonenvironmental, preenvironmental, proenvironmental Adverb: environmentally, nonenvironmentally Noun: environmentalism, environmentalist |
| History of the Word: | |
| The German Ökologie is from the Greek oikos meaning house. See weik- in Indo-European roots + the German -logie, meaning study, from the Greek -logiā, -logy. | Environment was first recorded in 1595–1605, from the Middle French environnement see environ + -ment, and later, + -al. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Ecological versus Environmental
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Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: environmental
“Ecology vs. Environmental Science: What’s the Difference?.” Marysville University. n.d. Accessed 15 Aug 2023. <https://online.maryville.edu/blog/ecology-vs-environmental-science/>.
The Free Dictionary: ecological, environmental
Koshal. “Difference Between Ecological and Environmental.” DifferenceBetween.com. 25 June 2011. Accessed 15 Aug 2023. <https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-ecological-and-vs-environmental/>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Thinning versus Clearcutting, 16 April 2009, by Sam Beebe, Ecotrust, and uploaded by Peteforsyth is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.
