Emil

Normally, Greek words that mean to love something end with -philia - Greek for love.

Examples: Paedophilia, Anglophilia, haemophilia.

But the word philosophy, which allegedly means love to knowledge/wisdom (sophia), has filo- in the start of the word. Why?

Doug Shaver

The word philosophy was current in ancient Greek, and presumably was formulated according to conventions that the ancient Greeks themselves actually followed when they needed to coin a word. English speakers just adopted the word as they found it.

The -philia examples you cite are all modern (i.e. post-Medieval) coinages, and they were coined by English speakers, not Greek speakers. (Which is to say, it's not strictly correct to call them Greek words.) Whether modern Greeks would have done it differently, I have no idea, but English has its own rules for making up new words using Greek or Latin components.

Jedi_Counselor

Maybe we have it all wrong and philosphy is just the Study of Love

I feel like I should be wearing a robe and smoking a bong right now -- I'll get back to work.

-JC

Solitary Man

Think philology - the love of language or study. Other Greek words include philoxenia (hospitality, or rather the love of foreigners), philodendros (loving of trees), philonikia (rivalry, or rather the love of victory), and philodikia (litigiousness, or rather the love of justice).

PS - there's no "study" root in philosophy. It's philos, love, and sophia, wisdom.