Shakespeare is commonly cited as an example of human genius, but did you know that he and Mozart played a key role in the emergence of the modern word 'genius' ?
Original meaning The word 'genius' is an old Roman word (in Latin) meaning 'spirit'. Specifically, it referred to the spirit of a person or place. When Romans worshipped a Roman emperor, they were actually worshipping his 'spirit' or 'genius', not the full person. Similarly, the Romans would refer to the 'spirit of a place' ('genius loci') - the mood, atmosphere of a place such as a forest, lake or valley (probably somewhere in nature, rather than in a town or city).
Literary theory Separately, some Greeks and Romans studied literature and art to figure out what made good art. Two notable examples were Aristotle's work 'Poetics' which examined what makes a good tragedy; and Horace 'The Poetic Art' which asked what makes a good poem.
Renaissance From the Renaissance onwards, people re-discovered works such as Aristotle and Horace and believed these were the rules for making good art (eg in drama, unity of time and place). And most writers and artists would follow them.
Shakespeare, Mozart And then artists such as Shakespeare and Mozart came along. They made great art, but they often did not follow the rules (eg a Shakespeare play often does not have unity of time and place). The scholars and critics were puzzled how this could be - and concluded that some artists had gifts which went beyond the rules: it was due to their 'genius' or 'spirit'.
New meaning And so, the word 'genius' came to mean 'special creative faculty going beyond the norm' which is how we tend to use the word nowadays.
More reading 'The Genius of Shakespeare' by Jonathan Bate (1997) Chapter 6 'The Original Genius' https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/jonathan-bate/the-genius-of-shakespeare/9781509822546 13 September 2019
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