As a student of German, I was confused as to how der Gymnasium could be a school and our gymnasium was a place to work out. Anyone have any ideas as to how the two words could be exactly the same, yet mean such different things? Meriam-Webster’s says that gymnasium is from the Greek word gymnazein which means to exercise naked (although I don’t quite see what that has to do with our gymnasiums), and that the school form of the word comes from the Latin word for school. However, No online dictionaries offer anything close to gymnasium as the Latin word for school.
Gynmasium in German (and in Dutch, too) refers to the highest level of high school education. It’s usually called this because it encompasses courses in Latin and Greek. The variety without the classic languages is often referred to as Atheneum. Same level of education, no dead languages.
In ancient Greece, a gymnasium was a school where athletes trained naked for the Olympic games. In English, we retain the association with athletics; in German, they retain the association with school. In both languages, the association with nudity has been lost. The gym- root meaning naked is retained in such words as gymnosperm (a tree with naked seeds), and gymnophobia (fear of nudity).
Well, okay, so I wasn’t entirely right.
In ancient Greece, a gymnasion was an open-air place set aside for exercising naked. Eventually, it evolved into a place for discussion and debate, and later teaching, in addition to exercise. Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum were both gymnasia. In English we can call a school an academy, in German a Gymnasium, and in French a lycée or gymnase.