școală

Forms

școală f (plural școli)^[1] Old and regional forms abound: scoală, shoală and sholă in Latinist writers, scuolă, and Transylvanian ișcoală, așcoală, oșcoală; the old plural was școale.^[2][3] Petru Maior wrote „cela de la gramatici în shoală” “the other [is learnt] from grammarians at school”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic школа (škola), as MDA2 and the DLR state.^[2][3] DEX names the modern Slavic languages instead: Bulgarian школа (škola), Serbo-Croatian škola, Russian школа (škola) and Polish szkoła.^[4] Ciorănescu derives it from Latin schola through the Slavic form, after Densusianu, and compares the Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish and Hungarian words.^[5] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ, “leisure; lecture”).^[1][6]

Several forms reached Romanian by other routes: according to the DLR ⟨scoală⟩ and ⟨shoală⟩ are the Latinist spellings after the Latin word, ⟨scuolă⟩ comes from Italian scuola, and the Transylvanian ⟨ișcoală⟩ and ⟨așcoală⟩ from Hungarian iskola and its older form oskola.^[3][5][7] South of the Danube the word is a loan from Greek: Aromanian sculie and Megleno-Romanian sculó.^[5][8][9] școlar “pupil” passed into Bulgarian, according to Capidan.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Eustratie's Pravila of 1632.^[10] MDA2 and the DLR cite first the New Testament of 1648, where Paul taught daily „în școla a unui tirean” “in the school of one Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant a place of teaching.^[3][10] Dosoftei's lives of the saints tell of saints who went to school as children, and Nicolae Costin compares the training of soldiers to teaching in schools.^[10][3] In the 18th century the chronicler Muste writes of a school set up for teaching children, and a document of 1795 requires a monastery to keep one.^[3] Through the 19th century the organisation of public education gave the word its modern range of compounds: școală primară, secundară, normală (a teachers' college), comercială.^[10]

The word also came to mean the building, the pupils and teachers of a school, and figuratively a source of experience or a movement in science or art with its followers;^[4][2] a face școală means “to win followers”.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1632 – the first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[10]
• 1648 – școla in the New Testament.^[2][3]
• 1688 – școală in the Bucharest Bible (2 Maccabees 4:9).^[11]
• 1795 – a monastery is to keep a school, in a document.^[3]
• 1825 – scuolile in a document.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A school: a public institution of education, especially primary or secondary.^[4][2][1]
2. The building of a school; the pupils and teachers of a school; schooling, education.^[4]
3. (figurative) A source of knowledge or experience; a system of training in a field.^[4]
4. (figurative) A movement in science, literature or art with its followers;^[4] a face școală: to found a following.^[4]

Word family

• școlar
• școlăriță
• școlăresc
• școlărește

Related words

• Aromanian sculie
• Latin schola

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1092
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. școală
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1086
5. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. școală
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. schola
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 237
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 934
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 84
10. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. școală
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Mac 4:9