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'Gymnasium' comes from Greek gymnasion, from gymnazein, 'to train naked', and gymnos, 'naked'. Athletes in ancient Greece exercised and competed without clothes, their bodies rubbed with olive oil.

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The Greek gymnasium was much more than a sports ground. Young men trained there, but it also had baths and open spaces where people met to talk, and philosophers came there to teach. Athens had three great public gymnasia, and two of them gave their names to education: Plato's school met at the Academy from around 387 BC, and Aristotle taught at the Lyceum from 335 BC. That is why German still calls an academic secondary school a Gymnasium, why French has lycée and Turkish lise, and why we speak of academies. In Greek, a gymnastēs was the trainer rather than the athlete; English 'gymnast' has been used for the athlete since the 1590s.

Türkçe oku
İngilizcede spor salonu anlamına gelen “gymnasium”, Yunancada “çıplak” demek olan gymnos'tan türemiştir. Antik Yunan'da gymnazein “çıplak antrenman yapmak” demekti; çünkü atletler bedenlerine zeytinyağı sürüp giysisiz çalışır ve yarışırdı. Antrenman yerinin adı olan gymnasion da bu fiilden gelir.

Antik Yunan'daki gymnasion bir spor alanından çok daha fazlasıydı. Gençler burada antrenman yapardı, ama hamamları ve açık alanları da vardı; insanlar sohbet etmek için buraya gelir, filozoflar ders verirdi. Atina'daki üç büyük gymnasiondan ikisinin adı eğitim dünyasına geçti: Platon'un okulu MÖ 387 dolaylarından itibaren Akademia'da toplandı, Aristoteles de MÖ 335'ten itibaren Lykeion'da ders verdi. Bu yüzden Almancada üniversiteye hazırlayan liselere bugün hâlâ Gymnasium denir. Fransızcadaki lycée ve ondan geçen Türkçe lise Aristoteles'in Lykeion'undan, akademi sözcüğü de Platon'un Akademia'sından gelir. Türkçedeki jimnastik de Fransızca üzerinden aynı Yunanca köke dayanır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Gymnasium (ancient Greece)
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