Sorta remindes me of this:
Metrology: the science of physical measurements (distance, temperature, time, mass, etc.) and its applications.
Meteorology: the study of the Earth’s atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena.
I worked in a temperature metrology laboratory after I graduated college. Calibrated temperature sensors. When someone asked what I did, I would respond that I’m a metrologist. They’d always give me a funny look, and ask if I predict the weather.
The study of meteors is called Meteoritics, apparently. Although I’m interested in this subject I didn’t know it had such a wonky name.
The mention of metrology reminds me of mensuration, the branch of mathematics dealing with calculating the lengths, areas, and volumes of geometric figures. And working a problem in mensuration is to mensurate. For obvious reasons you can’t use either word in a math class full of twelve-year-old boys.
Etymology ultimately comes from the Greek word *‘etymon’, meaning ‘literal meaning of a word according to its origin’.
Entomology, from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (éntomon), meaning “insect”, and λόγος (lógos), meaning “study”,
You might be surprised. In my high school Latin class (in an all-boys school), we were reading a passage out loud involving someone putting away a sword, and nobody reacted at all to the word for “sheath” showing up.
It helps that it’s pronounced “wa-GHEE-nah” 
I think it’s Catullus they keep out of high-school Latin classes…
He’s the one who wrote his lover poetry about how his “sparrow” was dead, right? We absolutely read him.
I didn’t get the alt-text in the XKCD cartoon in post 370 until I looked it up; apparently the study of creation is etiology, so that works.
There are many compounds that differ in meaning depending on whether they’re written as one word or two or hyphenated. Here’s one that jumped out at me today. In discussing increasing dietary fiber, a web page I was reading says “you have built up to such a high intake overtime” (they meant “over time”).
over time: gradually; during a period of time
overtime: (1) hours worked beyond one’s usual working period, or the amount of money earned from working such time (2) extra time added to the end of a sporting event, or the portion of the event played during this time
over-time: (photography, rare) to provide more than the usual time for some process, especially development, whether accidentally or on purpose for effect
Similarly, there’s a difference between everyday (pedestrian) and every day (daily).
Or “unionized” (organized for collective bargaining, as labor), vs. “unionized” (neutral in charge, not turned into plasma).
Or “polish” (to make a surface smooth or shiny) vs. “Polish” (related to Poland).
Polish is also both a verb, to make shiny or smooth, and a noun referring to fine abrasive materials that can help that work.
prescribe (to order) versus proscribe (to forbid).
I’m sure there have been many occasions when someone was tempted to turn a pedant into a pendant… .
I’ve seen writers confuse “grizzled” and “grisly”, resulting in them describing some harmless character as “a grisly old man”.
You guys have been reading Asimov, right?
We should call these “Words autocorrect can get confused” – as it did to me last week!