Word of the Day

enkyklios paideia

Enkyklios paideia

Greek

Greek phrase/ɛŋˈkʏklios paɪˈdeɪa/English/ɪnˌsaɪkləˈpiːdiə/
“Encyclopaedia did not begin as a reference book — it was a Greek phrase meaning circular education, the full circle of learning a child needed.”

Greek enkyklios meant circular or general, and paideia meant education or child-rearing. Enkyklios paideia was the well-rounded general education that Greek society considered the foundation of citizenship — what we might now call a liberal arts education. The Roman author Quintilian used the phrase in his 1st-century CE work Institutio Oratoria, the definitive text on Roman education.

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