Ἀκαδήμεια

Forms

Ἀκᾰδήμειᾰ (Akadḗmeia) f (genitive Ἀκᾰδημείᾱς); first declension^[1] Old Attic hεκαδεμεια on a boundary stone, later Ἑκαδημία; Ἀκαδημία from Pausanias on.^[2] The spelling Ἀκαδήμεια is protected by the metre in Attic comedy.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek Ἀκάδημος (Akádēmos, “a local hero”) + -εια (-eia), the precinct named after the hero Academus.^[1][3][2] Diogenes Laertius says the place was earlier called Ἑκαδημία after a hero Hecademus, and an Attic boundary stone has the spelling with h-.^[2]

The origin of the hero's name is unclear.^[4] It is usually connected with the first element of ἑκάεργος (hekáergos) and with the Boeotian personal name Ϝhεκάδαμος (Whekádamos), which points to an initial digamma with aspiration; the second element seems to be δῆμος (dêmos, “district, people”).^[4][1][5] Beekes notes that others compare the Lydian place name Ἀκαδαμίς (Akadamís) and Carian names, and that if the name is Pre-Greek, its varying vowels would be easier to explain.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the boundary stone of the Hekademeia, an Attic inscription of the 6th–5th century BC.^[2] The place was a precinct with a gymnasium north-west of Athens, dedicated to the hero.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Athens it was a wooded park with a gymnasium: Aristophanes mentions its sacred olive trees, and later writers say that Hipparchus walled it and Cimon planted it with trees and built running tracks.^[2][3] Plato taught there, and so the name passed to his school of philosophy, which later writers divided into an Old, a Middle and a New Academy.^[3][2][7] A late proverb, “you come from the Academy”, was said of a philosopher.^[3]

Cicero gave the name to one of the gymnasia of his villa at Tusculum, and in a 6th-century AD papyrus it is a general word for schools in Alexandria.^[2] From the name came Latin Academia, the source of French académie and of the English word academy, first used in the mid-15th century of Plato's school.^[8][9] The Modern Greek word for an academy of learning is a borrowing back from French and Italian.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – An Athenian boundary stone marks the precinct, spelled with h-.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Eupolis and Aristophanes mention the precinct and its sacred olives.^[3][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon name it as the place where Plato taught.^[2][10]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus distinguishes the Old, Middle and New Academy as schools of philosophy.^[3][2]
• 1st century BC – Cicero names a gymnasium at his villa after it.^[2]
• 6th century AD – A papyrus uses it of schools in Alexandria.^[2]
• 15th century AD – Apostolius records the proverb “you come from the Academy”.^[3]
• Mid-15th century – English borrows academy through French and Latin.^[8]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. The Academy, a precinct and gymnasium outside Athens dedicated to the hero Academus, where Plato taught.^[3][6][2]
2. The Platonic school of philosophy.^[3][6][2]
3. A place named after it, and (late) a school.^[2]

Word family

• Ἀκαδημαϊκός (Akadēmaïkós)
• Ἀκαδημικός (Akadēmikós)

Related words

• Ἀκάδημος (Akádēmos)
• Latin Academia
• English academy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ LGPN-Ling: Etymology and Semantics of Ancient Greek Personal Names, ANHIMA/EPHE and Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, Oxford, https://lgpn-ling.huma-num.fr
6. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux