Etymologically
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scholasticus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [skʰɔˈɫas.tɪ.kʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [skoˈlas.ti.kus][1]

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]

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