onto-
combining form of Gr. ὄν, ὀντ- being present participle of εἶναι to be. onˈtogony [-γονία generation, production], the history of the production of organized beings (Mayne Expos. Lex. 1857). onˈtography [-graphy], a description of the nature and essence of things (Mayne); so ontoˈgraphic a. onˈtonomy [-νοµία distribution, arrangement] (see quot.). onˈtosophy [σοϕία wisdom], the knowledge of being; ontology. ontotheˈology (see quots.); so ontotheoˈlogical a.
| 1803 J. Stewart (title) Opus maximum..*Ontonomy; or, the science of being. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Ontology, or *Ontosophy, the doctrine or Science de ente, that is, of being, in the general, or abstract. 1869 Contemp. Rev. X. 407 It was not to be an ‘ontology’ nor an ‘ontosophy’. |
| 1798 A. F. M. Willich Elem. Critical Philos. 171 *Ontotheology is the cognition of a Supreme Being from bare conceptions. 1854 Geo. Eliot tr. Feuerbach's Essence Christianity ii. 38 The ens realissimum, the most real being of the old onto-theology. |
| Ibid. 40 The *onto-theological predicates are merely predicates of the understanding. |