cliometrics

noun

clio·met·rics ˌklī-ə-ˈme-triks

plural in form but singular in construction

: the application of methods developed in other fields (such as economics, statistics, and data processing) to the study of history

cliometric

ˌklī-ə-ˈme-trik

adjective

cliometrician

ˌklī-ə-me-ˈtri-shən

noun

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Cliometrics comes from a combination of "Clio," the name of the Greek Muse of history, and "-metrics," as in "econometrics" ("the application of statistical methods to the study of economic data and problems") or "biometrics" ("the statistical analysis of biological observations and phenomena"). American economists Douglass North and Robert Fogel developed cliometrics, a highly quantitative means for studying the past. In 1993, North and Fogel won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their pioneering work.

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This isn't too surprising, as there wasn't that much cliometrics. —