Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Schedule
/ˈskɛdʒuːl/noun
A plan of times, or a list attached to a document.
The Greek roots
σχίδη
skhídē
split strip, splinter
Literally: “a strip split off”
Follow a root:σχίδη1 word
The story of the word
Late Latin schedula was a small slip of papyrus, and the Greek behind it is usually given as skhídē, a piece split off, from the verb that also produced schism and schizophrenia. Middle English cedule meant just that, a slip of paper with writing on it, which survives in the tax schedules appended to a form. The timetable sense is a railway word of the 1800s. The transatlantic split in pronunciation comes from a restored spelling: Americans read the ch as Greek k, the British kept the French sh.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
schismschistschizophrenia
In a sentence
The schedule slipped by three weeks and nobody wanted to be the one to say so.