syllabus

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin syllabus,^[2][3][4][5] a word that owes its existence to a misprint.^[6][7][2] In a letter of Cicero to Atticus, where comparison with the manuscripts shows the right reading to be Latin sittybās (“title labels”), the accusative plural of sittyba, from Ancient Greek σιττύβα (sittúba, “parchment label, title slip on a book”),^[2][3][8] some early printed editions have syllabos instead.^[2] Ayto dates the misprint to an edition of the 1470s.^[6] Later editors gave it Greek form, from which a spurious σύλλαβος (súllabos) was deduced and taken as a derivative of συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to put together, collect”), the verb behind syllable.^[2][6] The supposed Greek word was then latinized.^[2][6] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the Greek word as a variant of a Greek noun for a small hide or piece of leather, perhaps first a goat-skin.^[8] Klein and Merriam-Webster start instead from σίλλυβος (síllubos),^[9][10] and Etymonline, citing Beekes, calls the Greek word clearly Pre-Greek.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A concise table of the headings of a discourse, the contents of a treatise or the subjects of a series of lectures: 1653, in Bishop J. Taylor's Great Exemplar,^[2] 1656 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.^[12][10] Weekley found it first in Blount.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as "an abstract; a compendium containing the heads of a discourse", deriving it from Greek.^[13] The specific sense, the subjects covered by a course of study or an examination, is recorded by the OED from 1889,^[2] in line with the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins' late 19th century;^[14] Ayto puts it in the late 18th century.^[6] From 1876 Syllabus with a capital was also the list of errors condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, especially the one Pius IX issued in 1864, and later the list of Modernist propositions condemned by Pius X in 1907.^[2][15] A figurative use followed in 1938, in Auden.^[2]

Timeline

• 1470s – the misprint syllabos in an early printed edition of Cicero's letters.^[6]
• 1653 – a table of the headings of a discourse or the subjects of lectures; an abstract.^[2][12][10]
• 1876 – the Syllabus of the Roman Catholic Church.^[2]
• 1889 – the subjects of a course of study or an examination.^[2][14]
• 1938 – figurative use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outline or summary of the topics of a course of study, a series of lectures or an examination: The professor handed out the syllabus on the first day.^[10][15][2]
2. Chiefly in Britain, the subjects studied for a particular course, or a document listing them and saying how the course is assessed.^[15]
3. A summary or abstract of a discourse or treatise; a compendium.^[10][2][13]
4. Syllabus (Roman Catholic Church): a list of doctrines condemned as errors, especially the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX (1864).^[15][2]

Related words

• syllable
• syllabary

Usage notes

The plural is syllabi or syllabuses.^[10][15][4] Etymonline notes that if the word had been a real Latin one, its proper plural would be syllabi.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins