Institucioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of founding or setting up an order, body or practice ; a settled custom or rule that a community follows ; teaching or instruction given to a person
2. The establishing of a new body or practice ; an accepted law or usage handed down by tradition ; the training and guidance imparted to a learner
3. Setting something up in the first place ; a long-standing regulation or ordinance observed by a group ; the education and instruction a student receives

Etymology: The Latin "institutio" came from "instituere," meaning "to set up, establish, or instruct," built from "in-" and "statuere," "to set up or place." The Latin sense of setting something up gave rise to two strands that run through the word's history: establishing an arrangement, and instructing someone in it. Middle English took the word from Old French "institucion," which explains its spelling. The Old French ending replaced Latin "-tio" with "-cion," and English writers then added their own variant "-oun." In Middle English, the word covered the act of teaching, a formal ordinance or custom, and the founding of an organization. The sense of a recognized public body such as a university or hospital developed later from the founding sense.