Expert: Maria - 11/19/2008

Question
I'm trying to find the translation of "where knowledge is stored".  I and my assistant are pretty good at languages but not experts.  We know the ending would be teca, as in bibilioteca, but we think sientia has too much of a "scince" connotation.  Is there a translation that has both data and knowledge, and can not be mistaken for the modern "science"?

Answer
Hello,

since you mention the suffix “teca” as in the Italian word “biblioteca” (library) which derives from ancient Greek noun “bibliothéke” (Greek letters, βιβλιοθήκη ) through the Latin “bibliotheca”  composed by “biblíon”( βιβλίον, book) and “théke” (θήκη , box/chest), I suppose you want a term which is of  Greek origin.

You don’t want to use the Latin term “scientia” meaning “science”/”knowledge”  and then I suppose you are looking for a Greek noun meaning the same, i.e. “science”/”knowledge”.

So the  ancient Greek  term for  “science”/”knowledge”  is  “epistéme” (επιστήμη ), but however in ancient Greek there is no word which means “where knowledge is stored", while there is a word meaning  “where books are stored”, i.e. “bibliothéke”(βιβλιοθήκη).

Having said this, I have to suppose that you want a kind of new coined word  which could be “epistemotheca”, a Latinized form of an hypothetic ancient Greek "epistemothéke" composed by “epistéme” (επιστήμη, science/knowledge ) and “théke” (θήκη = box, chest, case), i.e. "where knowledge is stored"/”a place to keep science/knowledge as well as science books ”.

Is this the sense of your question? Have I  understood right?
Please let me know.

Finally, with regard to “epistéme”,  we find such an ancient Greek noun in the English word “ Epistemology”,i.e. “the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity”.

Best regards,
Maria