Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Stoicism
/ˈstoʊɪsɪzəm/noun
The philosophy holding that virtue is the only good and that we should accept what lies outside our control.
The Greek roots
στοά
stoá
porch, colonnade
Literally: “the doctrine of the porch”
Follow a root:στοά2 words
The story of the word
Zeno of Citium taught in a public colonnade on the north side of the Athenian agora, the Στοὰ Ποικίλη or Painted Porch, and his followers were named after the building rather than the man. It was free and open, unlike Plato's Academy, which suited a school that recruited from slaves and emperors alike. English got stoicism in the 1620s and quickly thinned it to mean not complaining.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1620s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
stoicstoical
In a sentence
She bore the diagnosis with a stoicism that worried her family more than tears would have.