: syllabuses[1] or syllabi[2])[3] or specification is a document that communicates information about an academic course or class and defines expectations and responsibilities.
[4] The word is also used more generally for an abstract or programme of knowledge, and is best known in this sense as referring to two catalogues published by the Catholic Church in 1864 and 1907 condemning certain doctrinal positions.
[5] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word syllabus derives from modern Latin syllabus 'list', in turn from a misreading of the Greek σίττυβος sittybos (the leather parchment label that gave the title and contents of a document), which first occurred in a 15th-century print of Cicero's letters to Atticus.
The apparent change from sitty- to sylla- is explained as a hypercorrection by analogy to συλλαμβάνω (syllambano 'bring together, gather').
[9] In a 2002 study, Parks and Harris suggest "a syllabus can serve students as a model of professional thinking and writing".