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Word for Wednesday: Uniform


Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is school.

The word school comes from the Old English ‘scol’ meaning ‘place of instruction’, from the Latin ‘schola’ meaning ‘intermission of work’ and ‘leisure for learning’. The idea of children attending a school is from around 1300 and the idea of a school building is from the 1590s.

Over the last few weeks we’ve looked at the words semester, teacher, and pupil. Today’s word is uniform. 

A uniform is a specific outfit worn my members of a particular group as means of identification. In the UK, it is common for pupils to wear school uniforms in specific colours or with identifying logos. A school uniform might include a blazer and tie. 

The word uniform as been used to describe a specific set of clothes since 1748 and as an adjective meaning ‘of one from’ since the 1530s. It comes from the French ‘uniforme’, from the Latin ‘uniformis’. ‘Uniformis’ comes from ‘uni-‘ meaning ‘one’ and ‘forma’ meaning ‘form’.
 



22 Sep 2021
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School, Word, Uniform, Meaning, Wednesday, Latin

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