Philomath
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A lover of learning; a scholar. archaic
"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."
- 2 a lover of learning wordnet
- 3 An astrologer or predictor.
""The success of an almanac depended upon the appeal of the "philomath"-the resident astrologer who did the writing and predicting.""
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
First indubitably attested ante 1643 (perhaps antedated to 1611); from the Ancient Greek φιλομαθής (philomathḗs, “fond of learning”), from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) + μάθη (máthē, “learning”), from μανθάνω (manthánō, “learn”); compare opsimath, philomathematic, and polymath.
More for "philomath"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.