Etymologically
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παιδαγωγός

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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)

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