Definition of "geognosy" [ge•og•no•sy]

• The geological study of the Earth's structure and composition. (noun)

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• "The recent progress of geognosy, that is to say, the more extended knowledge of the geognostic epochs characterized by differences of mineral formations, by the peculiarities and succession of the organisms contained within them, and by the position of the strata, whether uplifted or inclined horizontally, leads us, by means of the causal connection existing among all natural phenomena, to the distribution of solids and fluids into the continents and seas which constitute the upper crust of our planet."
• "As professor at Freiberg beginning in 1775, after, rather than before Guettard's work, he trained the students who, returning to their own countries, spread the new science which he called "geognosy" but they called "Wernerism" and "Neptunism.""
• "Science boasts of being the handmaid of religion; yet there are names of note in her ranks who have labored rather to invest this phenomenon with the mantle of fable, and to force it into collision with the records graven on the rocky pages of geognosy."