παιδεύω

Forms

παιδεύω (paideúō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb from Ancient Greek παῖς (paîs, “child”) with the suffix -εύω (-eúō), so originally “to bring up a child”.^[1][2][3][4]

Beekes traces the noun to an older *παϝιδ- (*pawid-) and compares the same enlargement in παῦρος (paûros, “few, small”), related to Latin parvus (“small”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the 5th century BC on: Sophocles uses it of rearing a child, and Thucydides and Euripides of training and teaching.^[6][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to rear a child” is rare and poetic;^[4][2] Plato set it against τρέφω (tréphō, “to nourish, rear”) as “to educate”, which became the usual meaning: to teach children, train pupils, and also train animals.^[4][2] The perfect participle πεπαιδευμένος meant “well-educated, cultured”, as opposed to the ignorant, in Democritus, Plato and Aristotle;^[4][2] Plato said that Homer had educated Greece.^[4]

The Septuagint and the New Testament added the sense of discipline: to correct and guide, and so to chastise or punish.^[7][2] In medieval Greek the word still meant to bring up and educate,^[8] and the modern meaning of παιδεύω (paidévo), “to torment, give trouble”, arose in the medieval period.^[9][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for rearing a child, and Thucydides and Euripides for teaching and training.^[4][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato contrasts it with mere rearing and says Homer educated Greece.^[4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for correcting and for punishing.^[7][2]
• Modern Greek – παιδεύω (paidévo) means “to torment, trouble”, a sense from the Middle Ages.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rear, bring up a child; in the passive, to grow up.^[2][4]
2. To educate, teach, train (someone in a skill or branch of learning); of animals, to train.^[2][4][7]
3. (middle) To have one's children taught.^[2]
4. (perfect passive participle) Well educated, cultured; trained, expert.^[2][4]
5. To discipline, correct; to chastise, punish (Septuagint, New Testament).^[7][2]

Word family

• ἀναπαιδεύω (anapaideúō)
• ἀπαιδευσία (apaideusía)
• ἀπαίδευτος (apaídeutos)
• διαπαιδεύομαι (diapaideúomai)
• ἐκπαιδεύω (ekpaideúō)
• παίδευμα (paídeuma)
• παίδευσις (paídeusis)
• παιδευτέος (paideutéos)
• παιδευτής (paideutḗs)
• παιδευτικός (paideutikós)
• παιδευτός (paideutós)
• προπαιδεύω (propaideúō)
• συμπαιδεύω (sumpaideúō)
• ἀντιπαιδεύω (antipaideúō)

Related words

• παῖς (paîs)
• παιδεία (paideíā)
• παιδαγωγός (paidagōgós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d 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
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki