paedagogium

Forms

paedagōgīum n (genitive paedagōgīī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παιδαγωγεῖον (paidagōgeîon, “room where the pedagogues waited; schoolroom”).^[2][1][3] The Greek word is formed from παιδαγωγός (paidagōgós, “slave who led boys to school”), from παῖς (paîs, “child, boy”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in inscriptions from the reign of Claudius, perhaps already of Tiberius, and in literature from Seneca, Pliny the Elder and Suetonius on.^[5] Köbler dates it from Seneca,^[4] who uses it of the pages themselves, dressed in costly clothes.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

It was the school in which boys of slave birth were trained as pages in a noble or imperial household, and by extension the boys trained there.^[5][2][6] Pliny the Younger uses it of the building, and Suetonius uses it figuratively and euphemistically of seducing freeborn boys, in his life of Nero.^[6][8] Graffiti on the Palatine spell it ⟨ped-⟩.^[5] In British Latin of the 16th century it was a school for grammar, and a glossary gives it the sense of the office of teacher.^[9]

Timeline

• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of richly dressed pages.^[6][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the pages.^[7][4]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it figuratively.^[8][4]
• 1550 – A patent provides for a grammar school at Spilsby, called paedagogia.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A training school for slave boys meant to serve as pages; the pages' hall.^[2][6]
2. (collective, also plural) The boys trained there, the pages.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval and Renaissance Latin) A school; the office of a teacher.^[9]

Word family

• paedagōgiānus

Related words

• paedagōga
• paedagōgātus
• paedagōgō
• paedagōgus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press