What is the difference between a philharmonic orchestra and a symphonic orchestra?

What’s the difference between a philharmonic orchestra and a symphonic orchestra?

• Answer:

  It is indeed correct that philharmonic and symphonic orchestras are the same thing, or rather two different ways of saying the same thing. What may be helpful for you to know beyond this fact is that even though the two words essentially mean the same thing in modern usage, they are derived from two different languages: Greek and Latin. Philharmonic is derived most directly from Greek entering the English language through the modern French word "philharmonique", literally, loving harmony, and from the modern Italian word "filarmonico", consisting of the words "phil" (lover of) and "armos" (joint, harmony), which put together means "loving harmony." Symphony is more directly derived from Latin and entered English through Middle English "symphonie" and Middle French, being originally derived from the Latin word "symphonia", though that word itself is derived from Greek "symphonia", "symphonos," meaning "concordant in sound". it consists of the prefix "syn" (together, joint) and the greek word "phone" (voice, sound). To put it more simply, philharmony is a more recently invented word put together by speakers of Greek, whereas the word symphony is much older, having been put together by speakers of classical Latin.