Edification

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌɛdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

Definitions

1. The process of instructing, improving, or enlightening someone morally or intellectually, or a structure built for a specific purpose
2. the act of instructing or morally elevating someone through learning and intellectual growth
3. the process of enlightening someone's mind or improving their character through education or guidance

Etymology: The most striking thing about "edification" is that it began as a literal act of construction. The Latin "aedificatio" meant "building," and the verb behind it, "aedificare," meant to build or construct a physical structure. A house, a wall, a temple: these were the original objects of the idea. The leap from bricks to minds happened through a metaphor that was already common in Latin and Christian writing, in which a person's character or faith was imagined as a structure built up stone by stone. Once that picture took hold, "building up" someone's moral or spiritual life became a natural extension, and the word came to mean improving another person through instruction and teaching. The term reached English via Old French, which had taken it from the Latin accusative form "aedificationem." That path explains the spelling and the fact that the word carries the weight of a building metaphor into its modern sense of learning that uplifts.

Synonyms: education, instruction, enlightenment, improvement, development

Antonyms: ignorance, misinformation, confusion, obfuscation, deterioration