philomath
English
Etymology
First indubitably attested ante 1643 (perhaps antedated to 1611); from the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek φιλομαθής (philomathḗs, “fond of learning”), from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) + μάθη (máthē) (mathē, “learning”; from μανθάνω (manthánō), manthanō, “I learn”); compare opsimath, philomathematic, and polymath.
Noun
philomath (plural philomaths)
- (archaic) A lover of learning; a scholar.
- 1824, Rev. Philip Skelton, The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Philip Skelton, Rector of Fintona, page 27:
- For this (in my humble opinion, not very important purpose, and fitter to employ the talent of a philomath than a Newton) he and Leibnitz, much about the same, struck out a fluxional method, which they both took for a demonstration.
- 1896, John Bach McMaster, Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, page 108:
- Jerman for twenty years past had been the author of a Quaker almanac, and had for about the same time been engaged in a fierce almanac warfare with Jacob Taylor, a philomath and a printer of Friends’ books.
- 1824, Rev. Philip Skelton, The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Philip Skelton, Rector of Fintona, page 27:
- An astrologer or predictor.
- 2007, Thomas Fleming, Benjamin Frankiln: Inventing America, Sterling point books, age 33
- "The success of an almanac depended upon the appeal of the "philomath"-the resident astologer who did the writing and predicting."
- 2007, Thomas Fleming, Benjamin Frankiln: Inventing America, Sterling point books, age 33