On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 9:43 PM, Ian Woollard
<ian.woollard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
I think we're writing for everyone, although
ironically the 'pedia'
bit of Wikipedia and encyclopedia refers to children (as in PEDIAtric
doctors- children's doctors)!
Encyclopedias were actually mostly intended to educate children.
I had to go and check the etymology of "encyclopedia" after reading that,
and...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paideia
That article was where I ended up. I'm still not convinced that the
first *modern* encyclopedias were developed specifically for children,
but that was an interesting article, though it clearly still needs a
lot of work.
Somewhat of a folk etymology. The history of encyclopedias is a vexed
subject, but printing costs had to come right down before they had much
to do with kids.
Charles