entry
culture
/ˈkʌltʃər/Shared customs, arts, beliefs, and ways of life
From Latin colō / cultūr- (to till).
from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).
from Latin cultura "a cultivating, agriculture," figuratively "care, culture, an honoring,"
+1 more sourcefrom Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”)
Word Ancestry
from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn (around)”).
from Latin cultura "a cultivating, agriculture," figuratively "care, culture, an honoring,"
+1 more sourcefrom Middle French culture (“cultivation; culture”)
Picture a Roman farmer turning dark soil with a wooden plow: that daily labor was cultūra, from colō, “I tend or cultivate.” The same Latin verb could also mean “worship,” because tending a field and tending a relationship with the gods both involved sustained care. By the 1500s, English speakers began applying the farming metaphor to the mind: education could cultivate a person just as rain and labor cultivate a crop. The metaphor then kept expanding—first to cultivated oysters and bacteria, and eventually to the shared habits, art, beliefs, and institutions of whole societies. In 1867, the social sense of culture was established enough to describe a people collectively, but the old garden remains underneath: culture is what a community grows, tends, and passes on.
The Story
Picture a Roman farmer turning dark soil with a wooden plow: that daily labor was cultūra, from colō, “I tend or cultivate.” The same Latin verb could also mean “worship,” because tending a field and tending a relationship with the gods both involved sustained care. By the 1500s, English speakers began applying the farming metaphor to the mind: education could cultivate a person just as rain and labor cultivate a crop. The metaphor then kept expanding—first to cultivated oysters and bacteria, and eventually to the shared habits, art, beliefs, and institutions of whole societies. In 1867, the social sense of culture was established enough to describe a people collectively, but the old garden remains underneath: culture is what a community grows, tends, and passes on.
Modern Usage
In anime communities, “culture” can praise sexually explicit or ecchi anime as especially entertaining or sophisticated.
Notable References
- Urban Dictionary entries for “culture” and “cultured”
Kin & Kindred
From 'colō / cultūr-'·to till, cultivate, grow; figuratively, to care for and develop
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Etymonline
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary