What is a geography

The word geography can be broken into the two basic elements of "GEO" and "GRAPHY." Geo comes from the Greek word for Earth (the word Gaea, also meaning earth, derives from the Greek as well). The "ography" part comes from the Greek word graphein, which is literally to write about something. The word "graph" derives from the same basis.

Thus GEO + GRAPHY literally means "to write about the Earth." We have commonly come to understand that the translation might also be taken as to describe and map the earth. The American Heritage dictionary defines geography as "the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena." I agree with the dictionary, but I like to tell my students that geography really is the study of how the world works in terms of the physical and human processes that occur everyday.