Topic

The story of the word

Aristotle's Τοπικά taught argument by places, mental storerooms where a speaker kept lines of reasoning ready to pull out. Cicero's Topica passed the method to Rome, and the singular broke off in English in the 17th century to mean whatever is being talked about. The old sense survives in commonplace, a word-for-word translation of κοινὸς τόπος, and in the memory palace, which still files ideas in rooms.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

17th century