Academe

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈæk.ə.diːm/

Definitions

1. A domain dedicated to higher education, research, and scholarship
2. A realm associated with institutions of higher learning, intellectual inquiry, and academic collaboration
3. The environment encompassing universities, colleges, and scholarly pursuits focused on advanced learning and research

Etymology: The Athenian grove where Plato taught was named after a man. According to tradition, the garden belonged to the hero Akademos, and the Greeks gave his name to the ground itself, so the place became Akademeia and its teaching the Academy. The word we use now, "academe," is a much later descendant of that name. It passes through New Latin "academia," which was itself formed from the Greek "Akadēmía," and it reached English as a poetic name for the whole world of higher learning. The story of the grove survives in the word's doubled form. English also has "academy," which came in through a different route, so "academe" and "academy" are doublets: two words from the same source that arrived at different times and took on different roles. "Academe" keeps the sense of a place, a kind of realm, while "academy" became a term for schools and societies.

Synonyms: academic world, scholarly community, university, educational institution