scol

Forms

scōl f (strong ō-stem; genitive singular scōle, nominative plural scōla)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin schola (“school”),^[2][3] which is from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “leisure; school”).^[4][5]

Durkin counts it among the later Latin loans: its long vowel shows the Latin lengthening of a stressed open syllable, as in grād (“step”), beside the probably much older sċolu, which kept the short vowel.^[6] He lists that older form, with this later one, among the early borrowings, before about 650, in the senses “troop, band” and “school”.^[7] Holthausen and Köbler likewise treat the short form in the sense “school” as the same word,^[8][9] but Köbler and Wiktionary keep the short form meaning “troop, multitude” apart as a native noun, from Proto-Germanic *skulō.^[9][1] Wiktionary places the loan earlier still, deriving the word from Proto-West Germanic *skōlu, itself taken from Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form scōl itself is rare: the DOE Corpus has it only in Ælfric's Grammar and his Glossary, two texts it does not date by a manuscript.^[10] Both gloss Latin schola: the Grammar explains scolasticus as one who is on scole “in school”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller treat scōl and scolu under one head and note that they may give the later school and shoal in the way cōl and col gave cool and coal.^[11] In the sense “school” the texts use it for a place of learning, for the English quarter at Rome (Angelcynnes scolu in the Chronicle) and for the following of a teacher, as in Cristes scole.^[11] Clark Hall and Sweet give the one sense “school”.^[12][13] Durkin lists scōl and sċolu, with the compound leornungscōl, among the borrowed words that served as the Old English words for “school”.^[14]

The word continued as Middle English scole, which the Middle English Dictionary traces to it and to Latin.^[15] It is now English school.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a school, a place of instruction.^[11][12][3]
2. a division, a section.^[3]

Word family

• leornungscōl

Descendants

• Middle English scole (→ English school; Middle Scots scule; Middle Scots schuill)^[1]

Related words

• sċolu

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 280
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scōl
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 154
7. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 108
8. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 281
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. scolu
10. ^ Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
11. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 838
12. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 296
13. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 170
14. ^ Durkin, Philip (2014), Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 138
15. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com