The Greek & Latin Roots of English (40 page)

Higher Education

Once the fundamentals had been mastered, it was possible to continue one's education in a variety of subjects. Participation in public life demanded an ability to speak and argue well, and
sophistae
, men who claimed to teach not only the skills of persuasive rhetoric and oratory but also a practical wisdom, often commanded large fees. Education thus came to be seen as a pragmatic means of producing good citizens and promoting cultural traditions. Not everyone approved of the sophists’ teaching methods or their goals. Plato's denunciation of this kind of instruction, in which “the weaker argument is made to seem the stronger,” gave the term “sophist” the pejorative meaning it has today.

At Plato's school, the Academy, and at the Lyceum of Aristotle, advanced instruction was given in philosophy, mathematics, and science. The curriculum of the liberal arts, the product of the faculty of these institutions as well as the sophists, became the foundation of higher learning in Europe, and forms the basis of education in the modern college and university. Of course, it wasn't always just seminars and lectures and a lot of hard work; campus life clearly held some pleasures, most notably
symposia
.

It's All Academic …

The school founded by Plato was called the Academy. Today, the adjective
academic
is commonly used to mean scholarly or learned, but without practical application.

But Not Too Academic

In ancient Greece, the symposium was a gathering of men who were entertained by poets and musicians, as well as with wine. At the one described by Plato in his dialogue,
The Symposium
, the participants, including Socrates, try to define the meaning of
eros
.

What Were You Saying?

There are of course, many kinds of speeches; some may be flattering:

From Greek into Latin

Some Greek and Latin nouns retain their original plural endings in English. Greek words that were adopted by the Romans often have Latin endings in English, e.g.,

The Liberal Arts

In the medieval universities of Europe, the liberal arts were divided into two classes of study: the
quadrivium
and the
trivium.The quadrivium
consisted of arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music; the
trivium
comprised grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. What Latin words are at the root of these courses of study?

The Key to Success

The culture of ancient Greece was held in such high regard that when the first American fraternity was founded in 1776, it took its name, Phi Beta Kappa, from the initial letters of the Greek phrase, φιλοσοφία βίου κυβερνήτης:
Philosophy is the Guide of Life
. It's a useful thought.

BOOKS AND LIBRARIES

The first organized research library was said to have been established by Aristotle at the Lyceum, but certainly the largest and most famous library in antiquity was founded in the third century BCE at Alexandria in Egypt. It is claimed by contemporary sources that it contained 700,000 volumes. Associated with the library was the museum, an institute for advanced research under the aegis of the government, where scholars cataloged and edited much of the canon of ancient Greek literature.

The production of books was a difficult and laborious task, since each text had to be copied by hand, and errors were inevitable. Most volumes were written on rolls of papyrus, although parchment, made from treated animal skins, was also used. The
codex
, forerunner of the modern book, with bound pages, was not in common use until the second century CE. Now, of course, with the use of computers and the electronic transmission, storage, and retrieval of information, some people believe that printed books may go the way of the feather pen and inkwell.

Mosaic of a Cyclops. Fourth century CE (Piazza Amerina, Sicily)

Going Around in Circles

Research
, the foundation of all good scholarship, is derived from the Latin verb
circo-cir- care
= to go around.

Stop, Thief!

The root of the word
plagiarism
reveals just how serious a crime it is.

plagio-plagiare-plagiatum
= steal, kidnap

Talking May Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health

We have already seen that there are a great many Latin verbs that mean “to speak.” Some of them produce derivative nouns and adjectives that go beyond plain talking. Which words that have to do with speech can you find in the following sentence?
“After taking elocution lessons, what fatal pronouncement did the loquacious oracle vocalize when it predicted your future?”

Get to the Point

Although many students find it hard to believe, punctuation is important for understanding the meaning of a sentence. Ancient Greek and Latin texts not only had no punctuation, but no spaces between words. These marks were invented by the librarians in Alexandria in the third century BCE, but it was not until the ninth century CE that they were used with any regularity. So consider yourself lucky; otherwise, you might get the wrong idea from the following sentence: “As we sat down to eat my father made a speech.”

NAME _______________________________________________________________________

A. Answer the following questions, or fill in the blank with the literal meaning of the italicized word or part of a word. Make sure that the sentence is grammatically correct. If you are unsure of the meaning, check your unabridged dictionary.

1. Our il
lu
sions help us __________with reality.

2. A good
educ
ator should __________ __________ knowledge from her
students
who are, of course, __________to learn.