philomath

English

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɪləmæθ/

Noun

philomath (plural philomaths)

1. (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.

2. An astrologer or predictor.
   • 2007, Thomas Fleming, Benjamin Franklin: Inventing America, Sterling Point Books, age 33

     "The success of an almanac depended upon the appeal of the "philomath"-the resident astrologer who did the writing and predicting."