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curriculum

Etymology and origin of the English word curriculum

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1633
Ultimate origin
Latin (curriculum)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kəˈɹɪk.jʊ.ləm/ (UK); /kəˈɹɪk.jə.ləm/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is New Latin, from Latin curriculum (“a running, course, career; a racing chariot”),[2][3][4] from currere (“to run”) (see current),[2][4] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *kers- (“to run”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A course, especially a regular course of study: 1633 in the OED, as a Latin word used at the University of Glasgow;[5][2] in English use from 1824.[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the word was used in the academic sense in the Latin records of Scottish universities from the 17th century.[6] A curriculum vitae, Latin for the course of one's life, is thus literally the course of your life,[6] and the light carriage called a curricle took up the racing sense in the mid-18th century.[6] Curricular meant to do with driving carriages in 1798, and to do with a school curriculum from about 1909.[2]

Timeline

  • 1633 – at Glasgow, in Latin.[2]
  • 1798 – curricular, of carriages.[2]
  • 1824 – in English.[2]
  • c. 1909 – curricular, of courses.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. All the courses of study offered by a school or college.
  2. A course of study in one subject, or a group of related courses.
  3. Any programme or plan of activities.

Word family

  • curricular
  • extracurricular
  • core curriculum
  • curriculum vitae

Usage notes

The plural is curricula or curriculums.[7]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Curriculum.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/curriculum. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·