Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Anthropology
/ˌænθrəˈpɑːlədʒi/noun
The study of human societies, cultures and physical development.
The Greek roots
ἄνθρωπος
ánthrōpos
human being
λόγος
lógos
study, account
Literally: “study of humankind”
The story of the word
In its first English outing around 1590 the word meant the study of the human being as body and soul, something closer to anatomy plus theology than to fieldwork; the discipline we mean assembled in the nineteenth century. ἄνθρωπος is doing quiet work all over English: philanthropy is love of people, a misanthrope has had enough of them, and anthropomorphic gods are the ones built to our shape.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Modern Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1590s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
philanthropymisanthropeanthropomorphicanthropocene
In a sentence
She did two years of anthropology fieldwork in a fishing village.
It is a question for anthropology, not economics.