kindergarten (n.) Look up kindergarten at
1852, from German Kinder-Garten (1840), literally "children-garden, garden of children," a metaphoric name from Kinder "children" (plural of Kind "child;" see kin (n.)) + Garten "garden" (see yard (n.1)). Coined by German educator Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) in reference to his method of developing intelligence in young children. Compare the double sense in nursery
The first in England was established 1850 by Johannes Ronge, German Catholic priest; in America, 1868, by Elizabeth Peabody of Boston, Mass. Taken into English untranslated, whereas other nations that borrowed the institution nativized the name (Danish börnehave, Modern Hebrew gan yeladim, literally "garden of children"). Sometimes partially Englished as kindergarden (a form attested by 1879).