Today, the term “topic” can encompass any subject matter, whether in written form or in conversation, whether informal or formal. However, in the sixteenth century when it first entered the English language, “topic” had a more rhetorical meaning of “a class of considerations from which arguments are derived”. This concept originates from Aristotle’s work Topics, a book on logic that explains the art of constructing arguments. The title is derived from the Ancient Greek word for “place”, topos, as Aristotle referred to topics as “places from which arguments could be derived”. This same topos is found in words like topology, isotope, and dystopia, and its etymology has been challenging to trace due to its diverse meanings, possibly having pre-Greek origins.
