Who coined the term “calisthenics”?

[jesusloverr]

[The Etymology and Origins of the Word Calisthenics] According to Wikipedia, the etymology of “calisthenics” comes from:

the ancient Greek words kállos (κάλλος), which means "beautiful" (to emphasize the aesthetic pleasure that derives from the perfection of the human body), and sthenos (σθένος), meaning "strength" (great mental strength, courage, strength, and determination).

But as far as I can see there aren’t any details on where the term was originally coined, and who came up with it. This is purely for the sake of curiosity.

Does anyone in this community know?

Edit: some more digging and I’ve found that the word has been in use since at least the 1800s (according to Google Ngrams , but looking at the content from that period, it referred to more synchronised physical movements, rather than gymnastics related exercise.

The earliest book mentioning Calisthenics on Google Books is from 1856, titled: Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families by Catherine E. Beecher. In it, Beecher describes Calisthenics as:

a course of exercises designed to promote health, and thus secure beauty and strength.

She compares it with gymnastics, explaining that gymnastics is ”more severe...while they require apparatus and a room set for the purpose.”, unlike Calisthenics which ”excludes all those severe exercises” and requires zero apparatus.

• @dizstiguy mentioned a French book from 1828 titled Calisthénie; ou, Gymnastique des jeunes filles. Traité élémentaire des différens exercices. (author?)

• @vladimirsurguy-Judgment25 shared a goldmine of information (see their post below for more details):

The French Wikipedia page on calisthénie mentions Pehr Henrik Ling as starting the Swedish drill phenomenon, but credits Catharine Beecher for spreading both the word and the activity /calisthenics/ across American schools...It looks like Ling coined the concept but not the term. Article here

I found this other article describing the variety of works available at the time for physical education, gymnastics, and calisthenics. And it mentions 2 books published in 1827: A Treatise on calisthenic excercises arranged for the private tuition of ladies by Signor Voarino; and The Elements of Gymnastics, for Boys, and of Calisthenics, for Young Ladies by Gustavus Hamilton

 

[psychosarah]

@jesusloverr Here's another layer to it.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/calisthenics

 

[jesusloverr]

@psychosarah Some great extra info! Kind of matches what I found on Google Ngrams too (edited my post)

 

[ladyel]

@jesusloverr It was ME.

 

[damascusroad]

@ladyel

 

[dawn16]

@jesusloverr The French Wikipedia page on calisthénie mentions Pehr Henrik Ling as starting the Swedish drill phenomenon, but credits Catharine Beecher for spreading both the word and the activity /calisthenics/ across American schools.

In attempting to confirm or deny that I found this article. https://excelsiorgroup.co.uk/histor...s/#tmup=/p/3368599-excelsior-athletic-develo/

Second sentence of the second paragraph of the section "Swedish Gymnastics and Swedish PT":
Amongst other things, Ling is credited with inventing Calisthenics (derived from the Greek words Kalos and Sthenos: Beauty and Strength) and several pieces of equipment including wall bars, beams and the vaulting box.

It looks like Ling coined the concept but not the term.

I did find the French book and on pages ix and x of the second edition (1830) it specifically states the authors are using calisthénie to describe gymnastics for girls because the recent gymnastics book published in England used that title for the section for girls. It also states that it was at the time of writing the only book outlining gymnastics for girls.

I found this other article describing the variety of works available at the time for physical education, gymnastics, and calisthenics. https://blogs.princeton.edu/cotsen/...ibute-to-all-the-strong-bodies-in-the-stacks/

And it mentions 2 books published in 1827:
A Treatise on calisthenic excercises arranged for the private tuition of ladies by Signor Voarino; and
The Elements of Gymnastics, for Boys, and of Calisthenics, for Young Ladies by Gustavus Hamilton

Presumably the one available English book when the French book was being written would have been neither of these, but a book predating it.

The 1804 English translation of Guts Muth does not mention girls or calisthenics at all. And searching for Clias did not generate any useful leads.

In 1824 at the Boston High School for Girls, the founder William B. Fowle was teaching girls gymnastics but calling it "hygienic exercises" because gymnastics was seen as heavy exertion that was considered inappropriate for girls and women at the time. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/43608920)

This narrows the time frame significantly, as Fowle would have been aware of most influential English books regarding physical education of girls published prior to his 1826 article in the American Journal of Education. But he did not use the word calisthenics, so allowing a reasonable transit time for ideas across the Atlantic, at some point between approximately 1824 and the end of 1826 in England, someone involved in the education of girls or a strong proponent for gymnastics-for-all began to call girls' gymnastics calisthenics.

That's the whole hour I had available to waste. It's a lot of information to have and still have virtually no idea who it was that actually started using the word.

I would put money on Phokion Heinrich Clias though. He lived in England at the time and two people who alleged they worked with him both wrote books using the word calisthenics in the title.

 

[jesusloverr]

@dawn16 Amazing work! I’ll try summarise and add these to my original post.

 

[joshuawithmartin]

@jesusloverr Its greek, as far as I knew it was common to exercise with your body weight in the classic greek period.

 

[solaslove]

@jesusloverr The lesser known Greek philosopher-turned-strongman Calisthenius (probably).

 

[jesusloverr]

@solaslove Can’t tell if you’re pulling everyone’s leg or not...either way, I’ll bite.

I googled your “Calisthenius” but couldn’t find anything. I did, however, find a Greek historian called “Callisthenes” who accompanied Alexander the Great on his Asian expedition. Wiki article here. Problem is he has almost nothing to do with exercise, at least from the info on his wiki page. So a dead end me thinks.

 

[ladders145]

@jesusloverr Lots of fun rides stop at dead ends. That said, it’s possible that his name loosely translates to “Beautiful Strong One”, or something along those lines. To me, that would indicate that the ancients may have applied some variation of the word to the overall concept, at the very least. We’ll probably never know, so we can keep having fun guessing lol.

 

[prettyicke]

@jesusloverr The bad thing, I tell people I'm doing "body weight" exercises, they get it. But when I mention "Calisthenics" (my preferred word choice) I get a lot of weird looks from people not knowing what that word means.

 

[jesusloverr]

@prettyicke I’m from the U.K. and I use the term Calisthenics fully aware that 99% of people have no idea what it is, so I always add a brief description of what it actually entails to help “spread the word”, as it were.

 

[deepwoodsmike]

@jesusloverr Probably some nerd

 

[amartolos]

@jesusloverr I think it's been Agatha all along

 

[fightingbull542]

@jesusloverr Not an answer, but r/etymology & r/logophilia are worth subbing.

 

[jesusloverr]

@fightingbull542 This is right up my street! Thanks

 

[bbbeatt]

@jesusloverr I am Greek and after a lot of research I can assure you that Calisthenics origin from Ancient Greece.

Even the word itself is Greek (Kallos + Sthenos).

Here is some historical info for you.
(You can read more in my article regarding the origin of Calisthenics : https://calisthenicsnerd.com/2020/11/17/what-is-calisthenics/)

Greeks were using Calisthenics in order to prepare their body and mind for battle and athletic competitions .

If you were a soldier in training during the reign of the Spartans between 600 and 400 B.C., Calisthenics would have been a regular part of your workout regimen.

Young men being groomed for this elite army mastered the discus, javelin, wrestling, boxing, and other combat sports. And that’s where the history of Calisthenics began.

In Herodotus, we read that Xerxes’ spies saw this sort of flow movement that Spartans were doing with their bodies and mistook it for dancing; seeing this as a weakness, they attacked assuming the Spartans were weak.

We all know how that went…

Xerxes missed this key ingredient of Greek philosophy :

“The body and soul are tied together.”

These hardened warriors had been spending a great part of their lives practicing the blending of “beauty” and “strength” – Calisthenics.

The name Calisthenics comes from the ancient Greek words “κᾰ́λλος • (kállos)” which means beauty and “σθένος • (sthénos)” which means strength (physical and mental).

Kállos and sthénos by beautiful and strong people.

The two were not disconnected but instead, were understood to go hand-in-hand.

Even amongst some of the fiercest warriors in history, we meet a consistency of respect for the balance, control and softer aspect of movement.

 

[jesusloverr]

@bbbeatt It certainly makes for a nice story, but I don’t think there is enough (if any) evidence that the term Calisthenics, albeit having been taken from the Greek language, is actually a Greek term. European scholars have been adapting Greek and Latin terms for use in academia for centuries, but just because the term is in language X, doesn’t mean it is from X country.

I appreciate that some form of bodyweight exercise was probably used by the Spartans, as with many martial arts around the world. But I don’t think that the actual concept of Calisthenics is from your beautiful country, unfortunately! Feel free to prove me wrong, though, if you have any evidence of the term being used in Ancient Greece!

 

[thetruthfulone]

@jesusloverr Mr Stenics, from California