Art & MusicGreek → English
Musicology
/ˌmjuːzɪˈkɒlədʒi/noun
The scholarly study of music, its history, theory and sources.
The Greek roots
μουσική
mousikḗ
art of the Muses
-λογία
-logía
study, discourse
Literally: “study of the Muses' art”
The story of the word
μουσική was the art of the Muses and took in poetry, dance and education as much as sound, so a Greek studying music was working through most of a curriculum. The academic discipline got its name from German Musikwissenschaft and reached English early in the twentieth century with the usual -λογία bolted on. The narrowing is complete: the Muses have nothing to do with it now.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- early 20th century
Same family
musicmuseummosaicethnomusicology
In a sentence
Her musicology thesis is on how sixteenth-century printers set lute tablature.