Agency Dictionary
grammaticus
nounPronunciation: /ɡrəˈmæt.ɪ.kəs/
In Portuguese: gramático
History & Civilizations
Creativity & LearningWhat does “grammaticus” mean?
A secondary schoolmaster in ancient Rome responsible for teaching classical Greek and Latin literature, grammar, and poetic analysis to adolescent boys.
Etymology
A Latin word used unchanged in English writing about Roman education. Latin grammaticus was borrowed from Greek grammatikos, "knowing one's letters, concerned with letters", from gramma, "written character", a noun of graphein, "to write". In Latin the noun meant a scholar of language and literature and, in particular, the teacher of the second stage of schooling, who read the Greek and Latin poets with his pupils. The plural is grammatici.
Usage note
As an untranslated Latin term it is usually set in italics. Grammarian is the English word for a modern specialist in grammar.
Synonyms
- grammarian
- schoolmaster
Often confused with
- grammarian
- A grammarian studies or writes about grammar; the Roman grammaticus was a schoolteacher of language and poetry.
Word family
- grammar
- grammarian
- grammatical
- grammatically
Usage examples
From about 11, wealthier boys studied Greek and Latin poetry with a grammaticus, memorising authors like Vergil and Homer.
Concept
Source editions
Where this entry comes from in the Agency editorial.
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