Nude Volleyball, Anyone?
Now that I have your attention…
My morning ritual includes ripping yesterday’s page off The Word Origin Calendar which sits on the counter next to the coffee pot. The word du jour for Thursday, November 3, was GYMNASIUM, a common word we all know, yet an odd word in that it does not seem to be connected or related to any other word we use.
The calendar reported that gymnasium “springs from the Greek word gumnos, meaning “naked”. In ancient times, a gumnasium was a place where one exercised in the nude.” That is N-U-D-E, NUDE, as in NAKED, or for those of us in the South, NEKKID.
OMG…if Bush gets wind of this and can quit circling his tattered wagons long enough, he will probably try to commandeer all the gyms in the country and rename them “Homeland Security Localization Cells”, or something equally inane.
Using the word gym there sent me scurrying to Wikipedia, where I learned…
The word gymnasium, originally spelled gymnazein, is Greek for place to be naked and derives from the Greek word for naked: gymnos. Historically, such a place was a place for both exercise, as well as bathing, especially social (communal) bathing.
In 1598, the term was adopted from a “place to be naked” to a “place of exercise”.
The abbreviation to gym was introduced in 1871.
The Greek term gymnastikos (first re-spelled as gymnast in 1594) now refers to someone skilled in the art of bodily exercise, but no longer necessarily naked.
Whether it was gumnos or gymnos I will leave to those far more skilled at etymology than I. Next time you’re in a gym for a basketball or volleyball game, gymnastics competition, or whatever, close your eyes for a moment and visualize all the players/participants naked. Then SMILE real big. People sitting around you will wonder just what the hell you’re up to now…
4 Comments so far
There is a second use for gymnasium, not so well known here on this side of the Atlantic, but stemming from the same origins. From my OED: 2. Continental, esp. German, school of highest grade, preparing pupils for university. (equiv. of senior matric? A-levels?) I remember thinking what a funny word to use for a level of schooling the first time I read it in a novel, but it makes sense when you look at its history.
More trivia than you ever cared to know.
Andrea - Interesting and odd. I have never heard of that usage. Wonder if they do it naked also?
Yes, I’ve heard the German meaning as well. But I think naked to Germans means wearing lederhosen and nothing else. In Sweden, however, . . .
Many of the first Olympics were done nekkid.
Now, I could enjoy seeing a lot of things with nekkid participants. But don’t you think that running around the track, with pieces parts flopping around, would just kinda distract from the task at hand?