lyceum

See also: Lyceum

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Λύκειον (Lúkeion) (the name of a gymnasium, or athletic training facility, near Athens where Aristotle established his school), from Λύκειος ("Lycian" or "wolf-killer").

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /laɪˈsiːəm/

Noun

lyceum (plural lyceums)

  1. (historical) A public hall designed for lectures, readings, or concerts.
    • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle
      At a lyceum, not long since, I felt that the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, and so failed to interest me as much as he might have done.
    • 1875, Henry James, Roderick Hudson, New York Edition 1909, hardcover, page 414
      In the autumn he was to return home; his family - composed, as Rowland knew, of a father, who was a cashier in a bank, and five unmarried sisters, one of whom gave lyceum lectures on woman's rights, the whole resident at Buffalo, N.Y. - had been writing him peremptory letters and appealing to him as son, brother and fellow-citizen.
  2. (US, historical) A school, especially European, at a stage between elementary school and college, a lycée.
  3. An association for literary improvement.

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