Escola

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A place for education where instruction and learning occur in various subjects
2. An institution designed for teaching, typically accommodating students of a specific age range or curriculum
3. A structured environment for facilitating knowledge acquisition and skill development among learners

Etymology: Portuguese "escola" and Spanish "escuela" look like cousins of "school," and they are, though the route is unusual. The Latin "schola" was itself borrowed from Greek "skholē," which originally meant leisure or free time. That sense makes sense once you notice that in Greek society, learning was something done in idle hours by those who did not have to work for a living. Over time the word shifted from "leisure" to "the place where that leisure was spent in discussion and study." The Romans borrowed the word and carried it across their empire. In Iberia, Latin "schola" developed into Portuguese and Spanish "escola" and "escuela," following the regular sound changes that turned Latin speech into the Romance languages. The Latin form also gave English "school," which arrived in Old English as "scōl" through contact with Latin-speaking churchmen, so the English and Iberian words are close relatives that share one ancient ancestor. Because the word is inherited rather than borrowed, Portuguese and Spanish speakers use it for everyday things like the building, the classroom, and the course of study. Its sense of institution, the place of teaching, is what the Greek word first pointed toward in its own way, even if it began as a word about having time to spare.

Synonyms: school, academy, institution, college

Antonyms: ignorance