παιδαγωγός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pai̯.da.ɡɔː.ɡós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /pɛ.ða.ɣoˈɣos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /pe.ða.ɣoˈɣos/^[1]

Forms

παιδᾰγωγός (paidagōgós) m (genitive παιδᾰγωγοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of παῖς (paîs, “child, boy”) and ἀγωγός (agōgós, “guide, escort”), from ἄγω (ágō, “to lead”): “boy-leader”.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus and Euripides use it for the slave who looked after a boy.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The paidagōgos was usually a slave who took a boy to school and back and watched over his conduct.^[3][2] Spicq notes that a Greek child was in its mother's care until about six or seven, and then entrusted to such a guardian.^[3][2][4] He was not a teacher: Xenophon and Plato distinguish him from the διδάσκαλος (didáskalos, “teacher”).^[2] Plato calls Phoenix the paidagōgos of Achilles, and Plutarch says Fabius was mocked as Hannibal's paidagōgos because he followed him about without engaging him.^[3][5] Plutarch also uses it for the guide of a democracy or a tyranny.^[3][5]

Paul uses it twice: “the law was our paidagōgos until Christ”, a guardian in an inferior and temporary position, as Spicq explains.^[4][3][2] Medieval Greek used it for a teacher, a model of conduct and the guardian of a minor.^[6] Latin borrowed it as paedagogus.^[7] Modern Greek παιδαγωγός (paidagogós) is an educator, a specialist in pedagogy, in a sense taken from French pédagogue.^[7]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Euripides use it for a child's attendant.^[3][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato distinguishes the attendant from the teacher.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Paul calls the law a paidagōgos.^[4][3]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for a guide of states.^[3][5]
• 15th–17th century – Vernacular Greek uses it for a teacher and a guardian.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A slave who escorted a boy to school and back and supervised him, a child's attendant, tutor.^[3][5]
2. The tutor of a royal child.^[5]
3. (figurative) A guide, mentor, or (pejorative) a shadow, one who follows another about.^[5][3]
4. (later) A teacher; a guardian of a minor.^[6][7]

Word family

• παιδαγωγέω (paidagōgéō)

Related words

• παῖς (paîs)
• ἀγωγός (agōgós)
• ἄγω (ágō)
• English pedagogue

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
5. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki