pedagogy

Etymology

It is partly borrowed from Middle French pédagogie (“instruction, education”), recorded in French from 1495, and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin paedagogia (“school; teaching, education”),^[2][3][4] both from Ancient Greek παιδαγωγία (paidagōgía, “office of a pedagogue; teaching, training”),^[2][5][6] from παιδαγωγός (paidagōgós), the slave who escorted children to school, later a teacher (see pedagogue).^[2][3][5] The Shorter Oxford takes the sense "school" from Latin paedagōgium (“training establishment for boys; school”) instead,^[7] which the OED compares, and which comes from Ancient Greek παιδαγωγεῖον (paidagōgeîon), the room where the attendant slaves waited for their boys.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place of instruction, a school or college: 1571, in a Scottish record of the Book of the Universal Kirk.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the word to the 1580s, in the sense "the science of teaching".^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first English senses, a school (1571) and instruction or discipline (1583, in Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses), are now historical or obsolete.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "the mastership; discipline", quoting South's sermons on the "pedagogy of Moses's rod".^[9] The current sense, the art or practice of teaching and the theory of education, is recorded from 1623, in Cockeram's English Dictionarie,^[2] and is the only one current dictionaries give.^[10][8]

Timeline

• 1571 – a place of instruction, a school or college (now historical).^[2]
• 1583 – instruction, discipline, training (obsolete by 1713).^[2]
• 1623 – the art or practice of teaching; the theory of education.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The art, science or profession of teaching: a course in the pedagogy of mathematics.^[8][10][2]
2. The principles or methods of instruction, or a particular theory of education.^[10][8][2]
3. (obsolete, 1583–1713) Discipline or training.^[2][9]

Word family

• pedagogic
• pedagogical
• pedagogism

Related words

• pedagogue

Usage notes

The second g is pronounced either as in gem or as in go.^[8][10][2] Merriam-Webster gives the hard g as especially British.^[8] The OED's first edition (1904) also recorded a pronunciation with a long o in the second element.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins