אָקָדֶמְיָה (akademya) — academy
Etymology
Outside the walls of ancient Athens stood a sacred olive grove dedicated to the goddess Athena. The grove was called Hekademia, named after its legendary original owner, the mythological hero Hekademos, who saved Athens from the wrath of the twins Castor and Pollux by revealing that their sister Helen, kidnapped by King Theseus, was being held not in Athens but in Aphidna.
When Plato founded his school of philosophy in the grove around 387 BCE, the Greeks had already stopped pronouncing the initial H, so the institution became known as Academia. It operated at that site until 86 BCE when the site was destroyed during a Roman siege. The school was reconstituted inside Athens itself and continued operating intermittently — under the name Academia — until it was closed for good in 529 CE.
The name lay dormant for centuries until the Renaissance revived interest in Greek and Roman civilization. In Florence in 1462, a group of scholars founded the Neoplatonic Academy — not a school, but an intellectual salon. By the 16th century, the word "academy" spread across Italy to describe learned societies and specialized schools, distinguishing them from universities that clung to the old scholastic methods. European language academies followed this model: Germany (1617), France (1635), Spain (1713), Russia (1783), Sweden (1786), and finally the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Jerusalem (1953).
The naming of Israel's language academy was itself a major political battle. From 1950 onward, the Va'ad HaLashon's chairman Prof. Naftali Hertz Tur-Sinai insisted on the name "Academy," arguing no Hebrew word could capture its full international meaning. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion firmly opposed it, countering that "academy" was not truly international but only used by nations inheriting Greco-Roman culture. Ben-Gurion refused to bring the founding law to a vote until a Hebrew name was found. Prof. Yosef Klausner (who had coined "chultzah" and "iparon") also pleaded the case for the international name. In 1953, Ben-Gurion went on leave and interim PM Moshe Sharett — who also opposed the name, calling it "impurity in the temple of holiness" — nonetheless passed the law with a clause allowing the institution to choose its own name. The naming committee voted unanimously for "Ha'Academia LeLashon Ha'Ivrit," and that name stands to this day.
Key Quotes
"שאין אפשרות להביע במילה עברית מחודשת את כל משמעותו של השם הבינלאומי הזה, שנתייחד בשימושו למוסד תרבותי עליון במדינה בכל אומה ולשון בהיסטוריה" — נפתלי הרץ טור-סיני, ~1950
"השם אקדמיה אינו בינלאומי, אלא מקובל רק בקרב האומות יורשות התרבות היוונית-הרומאית" — דוד בן-גוריון, ~1950
"כאשר באים להקים מוסד ללשון העברית, הוא צריך להיות זך כגביש. זה לא יכול להיות תחת שם זר" — משה שרת, 1953
Timeline
- 387 BCE: Plato founds his school in the grove of Hekademia near Athens
- 86 BCE: The grove is destroyed in a Roman siege; school reconstituted inside Athens
- 529 CE: The Platonic Academy closes permanently
- 1462: Neoplatonic Academy founded in Florence, reviving the name
- 1583: Accademia della Crusca founded in Florence as Italy's language authority
- 1635: Académie française founded on the Italian model
- 1950: Debate begins over the name for the new Hebrew language authority
- 1953: Academy of the Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית) officially established
Related Words
- אוניברסיטה — university (the rival institution type in Renaissance Italy)
- ועד הלשון — the predecessor body to the Academy
- חשמן — another contested loanword in Hebrew ecclesiastical vocabulary