‖ scholium
(ˈskəʊlɪəm)
Pl. scholia (ˈskəʊlɪə); also 8 scholiums, 6–7 erron. scholias.
[med.L., ad. Gr. σχόλιον scholion, f. σχολή school n.1 Cf. F. scolie fem. (from the med.L. plural) in sense 1, scolie masc. in sense 1 b.]
1. An explanatory note or comment; spec. an ancient exegetical note or comment upon a passage in a Greek or Latin author.
| 1535 Joye Apol. Tindale (Arb.) 23 And when I shulde make scholias, notis, and gloses in the margent as himself and his master doith. 1660 Heylin Hist. Quinquart. ii. 42 Mr. Fox was fain to make soom Scholia's on it, to reconcile a gloss like that of Orleance, which corrupts the Text. 1760–2 Goldsm. Cit. W. cxiii, Almost every word admits a scholium, and a long one too. 1799 Monthly Rev. XXX. 136 Short Scholia are added to almost every chapter, containing various readings, or various translations, selected with much judgment and critical acumen. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. ix, Judy, however, did not choose to receive the laugh as a scholium explanatory of the remark. 1904 R. C. Jebb Bacchylides (Proc. Brit. Acad.) 9 From a scholium on the Iliad (24. 496) we know that Bacchylides spoke of Theano as having borne fifty sons to Antenor. |
b. In certain mathematical works (e.g. Newton's Principia): A note added by the author illustrating or further developing some point treated in the text.
| 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Scholium, is a remark made leisurely, and as it were by the by, on that Proposition, Subject or Discourse before advanced, treated of, or delivered. 1715 tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 23 Which is evident likewise concerning the Orbits of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, from the Scholium to Prop. 9. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind i. xiv, Some..cast all their..metaphysical and..moral learning into the method of mathematicians, and bring every thing relating to those abstracted or those practical sciences under theorems, problems, postulates, scholiums, corollaries, &c. 1824–5 Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. I. 314/2 A scholium is a remark applied to some preceding propositions, in order to point out their relative connection, or general utility and application. |
¶ 2. ? A ‘copy-book maxim’, trite saying.
| 1830 Marryat King's Own xix, The old scholium, that ‘too much familiarity breeds contempt’. |