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The word comes from the Academy in ancient Greece, which derives from the Athenian hero, Akademos. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning. The sacred space, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, Athena, had formerly been an olive grove, hence the expression "the groves of Academe."
In these gardens, the philosopher Plato conversed with followers. Plato developed his sessions into a method of teaching philosophy and, in 387 BC, established what is known today as the Old Academy. By extension, academia has come to mean the cultural accumulation of knowledge, its development and transmission across generations, and its practitioners and transmitters. In the 17th century, British, Italian, and French scholars used the term to describe types of institutions of higher learning.