pedagogue
noun
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Pedagogical, Pedagogy, and Pedagogue
Pedagogical and its cognates present us with an excellent example of how different words can come from the same root, retain closely related meanings, and yet take on distinctive connotations. Pedagogical, pedagogy, and pedagogue all come from the Greek paidagōgos, originally the word for an enslaved person who brought children to school. But while pedagogical and pedagogy have meanings simply related to education, teaching, or teachers (with no implied judgment), pedagogue has taken on a negative tone, often referring to a dull or overly formal teacher. A similar transformation has taken place with many of the pedant- words in English. Pedant originally denoted simply "a tutor," but now tends to mean "one who makes a show of knowledge." Pedantic formerly meant "relating to teaching," but now is more commonly used to mean "unimaginative or dull."
Synonyms
Examples of pedagogue in a Sentence
Patrick Frater, Variety, 20 Mar. 2023
His main teacher was Leon Russianoff, a leading clarinet pedagogue of the latter half of the 20th century, after whom Mr. Drucker would name his son.
—Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times, 20 Dec. 2022
Boulanger, the younger sister of famed pedagogue and composer Nadia, showed tremendous talent before her early death at 24.
—Dallas News, 1 Mar. 2022
Former patients spoke of him as a highly empathetic and conscientious doctor; former colleagues attested to his surgical skills and his excellence as a clinician, pedagogue, and promoter of best practices.
—Will Self, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
Montessori researches the pedagogue Édouard Séguin, who worked with children in a Paris asylum half a century earlier.
—Rivka Galchen, Harper’s Magazine , 18 Jan. 2022
But Andrew Glyn was first and foremost a teacher, an intellectually insatiable pedagogue with a desire to foster among his students a hunger for a broad understanding of the discipline.
—Gerard Baker, WSJ, 21 June 2021
New York City’s government employs more than 325,000, which includes around 269,900 civilian and pedagogue workers, according to the Independent Budget Office, a fiscal watchdog agency funded by the city.
—Katie Honan, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2020
There is hardly a paragraph in which Berryman—poet, pedagogue, boozehound, and symphonic self-destroyer—may not be heard straining toward the condition of music.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2020
Dictionary Entries Near pedagogue
Cite this Entry
“Pedagogue.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedagogue. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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pedagogue
noun
Middle English pedagoge "teacher," from early French pedagoge (same meaning), from Latin paedagogus (same meaning), from Greek paidagōgos "a servant who escorted children to school," from paid- "child" and agōgos "leader"
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