Etymograph

English

shul

Shul comes from Yiddish שול ‘school, synagogue’, from Latin schola ‘Leisure time given to learning’, and ultimately from Proto-Hellenic *skʰolā́ ‘holding back’.

  1. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*skʰolā́‘holding back’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσχολήskholḗ‘leisure, free time’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEschola‘Leisure time given to learning’
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050scuola‘school’
  5. Yiddishmodernשולshul‘school, synagogue’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2006shul

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*skʰolā́‘holding back’reconstructed
  2. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEσχολήskholḗ‘leisure, free time’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEschola‘Leisure time given to learning’
  4. Old High Germanc. 750–1050scuola‘school’
  5. Yiddishmodernשולshul‘school, synagogue’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 2006shul

Earliest quotation: 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights: “That Asher's mind would have also been on Elohim,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *seǵʰ- ‘to hold’

severe, sketch, severity, hector, perseverance, hectic, epoch, schema, 23 more

through Ancient Greek σχολή ‘leisure, free time’

scholastic, 4 more

through Latin schola ‘Leisure time given to learning’

school, scholar, 1 more

Today it means

noun An Ashkenazi synagogue.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Hellenic *skʰolā́ / shul

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