scholium

English

Alternative forms

• scholion

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek σχόλιον (skhólion, “comment”), from σχολή (skholḗ, “discussion”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: skōʹlĭəm, IPA^(key): /ˈskəʊlɪəm/
• Homophone: scolium

Noun

scholium (plural scholia or scholiums)

1. (linguistics) A note added to a text as an explanation, criticism or commentary.
   • 1535, Joye, Apol. Tindale (Arb.), page 23:

     And when I shulde make scholias, notis, and gloses in the margent as himself and his master doith.

   • 1660, Heylin, Hist. Quinquart., book ii, page 42:

     Mr. Fox was fain to make soom Scholia’s on it, to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance, which corrupts the Text.

   • 1760–2, Goldsm., Cit. W., chapter cxiii:

     Almost every word admits a scholium, and a long one too.

   • 1799, Monthly Rev., volume XXX, page 136:

     Short Scholia are added to almost every chapter, containing various readings, or various translations, selected with much judgment and critical acumen.

   • 1866, G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., chapter ix:

     Judy, however, did not choose to receive the laugh as a scholium explanatory of the remark.

   • 1904, R. C. Jebb, Bacchylides (Proc. Brit. Acad.), page 9:

     From a scholium on the Iliad (24. 496) we know that Bacchylides spoke of Theano as having borne fifty sons to Antenor.

   • 2000, Mary Depew, Dirk Obbink, Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 10, →ISBN:

     Sluiter examines a tension inherent in such scholarly works as lexica, scholia, epitomai, and commentaries: although the very titles of these works claim no more than secondary status, their authors engage nonetheless in a rhetoric of self-legitimation.

2. (mathematics) A note added to a proof as amplification.
   • 1704, J. Harris, Lex. Techn., volume I:

     Scholium, is a remark made leisurely, and as it were by the by, on that Proposition, Subject or Discourse before advanced, treated of, or delivered.

   • 1715, anonymous translator, Gregory’s Astron., volume I, published 1726, page 23:

     Which is evident likewise concerning the Orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, from the Scholium to Prop. 9.

   • 1741, Watts, Improv. Mind, book i, chapter xiv:

     Some…cast all their…metaphysical and…moral learning into the method of mathematicians, and bring every thing relating to those abstracted or those practical sciences under theorems, problems, postulates, scholiums, corollaries, &c.

   • 1824–5, Barlow, in Encycl. Metrop., volume I, page 314/2:

     A scholium is a remark applied to some preceding propositions, in order to point out their relative connection, or general utility and application.

3. A “copy-book maxim”, trite saying.
   • 1830, Marryat, King’s Own, chapter xix:

     The old scholium, that ‘too much familiarity breeds contempt’.

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with scolium.

Translations

philology: commentary note added to a text

Ancient Greek: σχόλῐον (grc) n (skhólĭon) Catalan: escoli (ca) m French: scolie (fr) f German: Scholie (de) f Greek: σχόλιο (el) n (schólio) Ido: skolio (io) Latin: scholium (la) n Polish: scholia nvir pl Romanian: scolie (ro) f Russian: схо́лия (ru) f inan (sxólija) Spanish: escolio (es) m Swedish: skolion n Vietnamese: chú giải (vi)

mathematics: amplificatory note added to a proof

French: scolie (fr) m Ido: skolio (io) Polish: (please verify) scholia nvir pl Romanian: scolie (ro) f

copy-book maxim

Further reading

• Scholia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “‖ Scholium”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume VIII, Part 2 (S–Sh), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 212, column 2.
• “Scholium”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.