Word of the Week: March 5, 2001
Seminary Gardens

In Latin, a seminarium is a nursery for plants. The Council of Trent in 1545-63 established church schools to train clergymen and called these institutions "seminaria." English soon acquired a new word, seminary, for these schools. The Germans later used a derivative of seminarium for advanced research classes, seminars, which was adopted by other nations' universities later still. So since seminarium means "nursery," would it be fair to say that all those students studying for ordination are still in nursery school? Or that seminars plant seeds of ideas?

Words of the Week are written by Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.