Scholarship
has
a long history, and as such has morphed many times over the years in both
spelling and use. Scholarship is a
derivative of the word scholar, a
word with a long history. Scholar
originated from the Latin word scholaris,
for student, as an adaptation of the older word Schola, for school. Scholaris
then became the Old German Scuolari,
Middle German schulaere, and the
Early Modern German, schuler before
finally being adapted into Old English as scoliere.
The first use of scholar in Modern English was around 1055[1]. Throughout the Middle Ages and into
the 17th century the spelling of the word went through many
alterations, from scoler[2] to
schooler[3]
to scholler[4].
It was during this time that scholarship
came into existence; scholar had yet
to achieve the spelling it has today. The first use of scholarship, around 1535, referred to the status or payments of a
scholar at any place of learning. A different definition of the word came into
use in 1589, and was spelled schollership:
the learnings and attainments of a scholar. Emphasis was placed at the time on
the study Greek and Latin literature, though some people considered reading and
writing enough to be considered scholarship. It is different from the word studies, for studies refer to the topic being studied, while scholarship refers to knowledge and
understanding. There was a brief stint around the mid-15th Century
where scholarship was used specifically for literary education. Shortly after,
the word morphed one last time into the familiar spelling scholarship. In modern times, scholarship has also been used in
numerous compounds, scholarship boy[5],
scholarship-candidate[6],
scholarship class[7],
etc.
However, the myriad of compounds and alternate definitions have fallen into
relative obscurity in the face of scholarship
as an emolument for students. The effectiveness of the scholarship in attracting students to a University, skilled workers
with children to a company, or any range of people to a competition has meant
that scholarship, as a grant,
possesses a distinct advantage in proliferation due to advertising. By no means
does scholarship as it pertains to a
scholar’s learning run the risk of becoming obsolete. Nonetheless many people
could potentially not know, or simply forget, that scholarship does not only refer to a grant is quite high. Hence
this gloss – a reminder that there is more to scholarship than just money.
References
“scholarship, n.”
The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University
Press. 14 November 2012 <http://dictionary.oed.com/>.
“scholar, n.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 14 November 2012 <http://dictionary.oed.com/>.
“scholar, n.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 14 November 2012 <http://dictionary.oed.com/>.
No comments:
Post a Comment