ē-ˈthä-lə-jē
Noun
1. Branch of biology that deals with the study of animal behavior (dictionary.com)
2. The scientific study of human and animal behaviour. (wiktionary.com)
3. The scientific and objective study of animal behavior, and is a sub-topic of zoology. The focus of ethology is on animal behavior under natural conditions, as opposed to behaviorism, which focuses on behavioral response studies in a laboratory setting. (wikipedia.com)
Word origin: From Greek: ἦθος, ethos, character + -λογία, -logia, the study of