academia

Meaning

Noun

• The scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole.
• Continuous study at higher education institutions; scholarship.

Origin

• New Latin acadēmīa, from Ancient Greek Ἀκαδημία, a grove of trees and gymnasium outside of Athens where Plato taught; from the name of the supposed former owner of that estate, the Attica hero Akademos. academy and Akademeia; see also academe. Modern sense of “the world of universities and scholarship” recorded from 1956.