Scientology (n.)

1951, system of beliefs founded by L. Ron Hubbard; a hybrid word coined by him. In the book "Scientology: 8-80" (1952, The Hubbard Association of Scientologists Inc.) Hubbard described his thinking in coining the word:

"Scientology" is a new word which names a new science. It is formed from the Latin word, "scio", which means KNOW, or DISTINGUISH, being related to the word "scindo", which means CLEAVE. (Thus, the idea of differentiation is strongly implied.) It is formed from the Greek word "logos", which means THE WORD or OUTWARD FORM BY WHICH THE INWARD THOUGHT IS EXPRESSED AND MADE KNOWN: also, THE INWARD THOUGHT or REASON ITSELF. Thus, SCIENTOLOGY means KNOWING ABOUT KNOWING, or SCIENCE OF KNOWLEDGE.

The elements of it are Latin scire "to know" (for which see science) and Greek logos "word, speech, statement, discourse," also "computation, account," also "reason," from PIE *log-o-, suffixed form of root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak," on notion of "to pick out words." There was a German scientologie (A. Nordenholz, 1937).