lyceum

See also: Lyceum

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Λύκειον (Lúkeion) (the name of a gymnasium, or athletic training facility, near Athens where Aristotle established his school), from Λύκειος, from Proto-Greek *λύκη), "light." The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated with Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia (Λυκία) and who was identified with the wolf (λύκος). Doublet of lycée.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /laɪˈsiːəm/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

lyceum (plural lyceums or lycea)

1. (historical) A public hall designed for lectures, readings, or concerts.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle:

     At a lyceum, not long since, I felt that the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, and so failed to interest me as much as he might have done.

   • 1875, Henry James, Roderick Hudson, New York Edition 1909, hardcover, page 414

     In the autumn he was to return home; his family - composed, as Rowland knew, of a father, who was a cashier in a bank, and five unmarried sisters, one of whom gave lyceum lectures on woman's rights, the whole resident at Buffalo, N.Y. - had been writing him peremptory letters and appealing to him as son, brother and fellow-citizen.

2. (US, historical) A school, especially European, at a stage between elementary school and college, a lycée.
   • 2021, Pedro Mairal, The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 109:

     We burst out laughing. She told me that one of her teachers at the "lyceum" used to say that whenever any of the students got up to anything.

3. An association for literary improvement.

Translations

a public hall designed for lectures or concerts

• Finnish: sali (fi), luentosali (fi)
• French: amphithéâtre (fr) m
• German: Aula (de) f, Konzertsaal (de) m, Vortragssaal m
• Greek: λύκειο (el) n (lýkeio)
• Italian: auditorium (it) m, sala da concerto f
• Japanese: 学園 (ja) (がくえん, gakuen)
• Polish: liceum (pl) n
• Russian: лице́й (ru) m (licéj)

References

• “lyceum”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “lyceum”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• cymule

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

lyceum n (definite singular lyceet, indefinite plural lyceer, definite plural lycea or lyceene)

1. alternative form of lycé

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

lyceum n (definite singular lyceet, indefinite plural lyceum, definite plural lycea)

1. alternative form of lycé