scholasticus

Forms

scholasticus (feminine scholastica, neuter scholasticum, adverb scholasticē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled scolasticus.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σχολαστικός (skholastikós, “at leisure; devoting one's leisure to learning”),^[2][3][4] from σχολάζω (skholázō, “to have leisure”) and σχολή (skholḗ, “leisure; school”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest citation is Varro's Menippean Satires, with the noun, a man of the schools of rhetoric.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it means of or suited to a school of rhetoric, especially in contrōversia scholastica, a debate on an imaginary case in the schools:^[2] Quintilian speaks of school subjects that could still arise in the forum, and Gellius of school declamations.^[2] As a noun it is a person who attends a school of rhetoric, student or teacher:^[2] the Catalepton ascribed to Virgil bids farewell to the empty bombast of the rhetoricians and scholasticorum natio, and Quintilian recalls learning the rules of life while still students.^[2] Apuleius uses it jokingly of a young, inexperienced man.^[2] In Church Latin it is a teacher or rhetorician,^[5] and medieval Latin used it for a scholar or man of letters, a learned lawyer, and the master of a cathedral school.^[6] In British medieval Latin it means of a school or university, and Bacon and Thomas More use it of the scholastic manner of teaching.^[7] Later it became the name of the philosophy of the schoolmen, especially of Thomas Aquinas.^[5]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro, of a man of the schools.^[2][3]
• before 66 AD – Petronius.^[2][3]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian, of school debates and students of rhetoric.^[2][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius, jokingly of an inexperienced youth.^[2][3]
• Medieval Latin – A scholar, a learned lawyer, a schoolmaster.^[6]
• 1590s – English scholastic, through French, of the scholastic theologians.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a school of rhetoric, scholastic.^[2][8][1]
2. Scholarly.^[1]
3. (Medieval Latin) Of a school or university.^[7]

Noun

1. A student or teacher of rhetoric.^[2][5]
2. A scholar; jokingly, an inexperienced young man.^[2][6]
3. (Medieval Latin) A learned lawyer.^[6]
4. (Medieval Latin) The master of a cathedral school.^[6]

Related words

• schola
• English scholastic

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 n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d e Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press