litterate

English

Adjective

litterate (comparative more litterate, superlative most litterate)

1. Obsolete form of literate.
   • 1549, Erasmus, translated by Thomas Chaloner, The Praise of Folie. Moriæ Encomium […], London: […] Thomas Berthelet, →OCLC, signature A iii, verso:

     That and if they want ſuche farre fetched vocables, than ſerche they out of ſome rotten Pamphlet foure oꝛ fyue diſuſed wooꝛdꝭ of antiquitee, therewith to darken the ſence vnto the reader, to the ende, that who ſo vnderſtandeth theim, maie repute hym ſelfe foꝛ moꝛe cunnyng, and litterate: and who ſo dooeth not, ſhall ſo muche the rather yet eſteeme it to be ſome high mattier, becauſe it paſſeth his learnyng.

   • 1636, [Gio Antonio de Paoli], translated by R[obert] B[asset], “65. Licinius. Anno Dom. 310.”, in The Lives of All the Roman Emperors, […], London: […] N[icholas] and I[ohn] Okes, and are to be sold by George Hutton […], →OCLC, pages 149–150:

     For wretched avarice and beſtiality of luſt, hee was knowne to be moſt diſſolute, and hee was ſo ill bred, and extravagantly drowned in ignorance, that he became an enemy of all litterate and learned men, terming them the skum and filth of men, endeavouring by all meanes that men ſhould ſhun and avoid them as a poyſon or a contagious plague.

   • 1714, Richard Steele, A Defence of Drinking to the Pious Memory of K. Charles I., Dublin: […] , →OCLC, page 8:

     They fall, we know, under the Study and Conſideration of the Theologues; but does not the general Knowledge of them lie open to common Senſe, and the common Underſtanding of reaſonable and litterate Men?

Latin

Etymology 1

litterātus +‎ -ē

Adverb

litterātē (not comparable)

1. in clear letters, legible
2. literally

Etymology 2

Adjective

litterāte

1. vocative masculine singular of litterātus

References

• “litterate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “litterate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• litterate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to the letter; literally: ad litteram, litterate