October 30, 1997

cicerone

While reading an article about a nineteenth-century archaeologist, I came upon the word "cicerone." I was surprised to find that it has its origins in the name of Cicero. How did this come to be?

Cicerone means 'a person who conducts sightseers; guide', and was apparently first applied to learned antiquarians who would show people around the ancient monuments of Italy.

The word is taken from the name of Cicero (full name, Marcus Tullius Cicero; sometimes he is called "Tully"), the Roman orator and statesman. The reference is that the guide is thought of as having the eloquence or learning of Cicero. A similar example is mentor 'a wise and trusted counselor or teacher', which derives from the name of Mentor, a character in Homer's Odyssey who was an adviser to Odysseus and was entrusted with the education of Odysseus' son Telemachus.

The word cicerone is taken from Italian, which in turn borrows from Latin; the -n- comes from Ciceron-, the Latin stem of Cicero. It is first found in English in the early eighteenth century.