Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A lover of learning.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A lover of learning; a scholar.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun archaic A
lover oflearning ; a scholar. - noun An astrologer or predictor.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a lover of learning
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I am all a-tremble with aspiration at the forthcoming bounty of verbiage that will soon ingress to my electrical correspondance receptacle. philomath (FIL-uh-math) noun
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The _philomath_, for my present purpose, must be exhibited as giving a lesson to presumption.
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) Augustus De Morgan 1838
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If you have quite done with l'Abbes Nolet, ask my friend l'Abbe Sallier to recommend to you some meagre philomath, to teach you a little geometry and astronomy; not enough to absorb your attention and puzzle your intellects, but only enough not to be grossly ignorant of either.
Complete Project Gutenberg Earl of Chesterfield Works Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733
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If you have quite done with l'Abbes Nolet, ask my friend l'Abbe Sallier to recommend to you some meagre philomath, to teach you a little geometry and astronomy; not enough to absorb your attention and puzzle your intellects, but only enough not to be grossly ignorant of either.
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1751 Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield 1733
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[T.S.]] [Footnote 3: John Partridge (1644-1715) cobbler, philomath, and quack, was the author of "Merlinus Liberatus," first issued in 1680.
The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 09 Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer Jonathan Swift 1706
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Partridge, philomath, professor of physic and astrology, and whereas the said Partridge hath not surrendered himself, nor shown cause to the contrary: These are to certify that the Company of Upholders will proceed to bury him from Cordwainer's Hall, on Tuesday the twenty-ninth instant, where any six of his surviving friends, who still believe him to be alive, are desired to come prepared to hold up the pall.
Isaac Bickerstaff, physician and astrologer Richard Steele 1700
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If you have quite done with l’Abbes Nolet, ask my friend l’Abbe Sallier to recommend to you some meagre philomath, to teach you a little geometry and astronomy; not enough to absorb your attention and puzzle your intellects, but only enough not to be grossly ignorant of either.
Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005
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philomath buzzed up: Ohio man bulldozes $350K home to avoid foreclosure (AP) 2 seconds ago 2010-02-23T10: 55: 01-08: 00
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philomath buzzed up: Pilot considered the only ace Tuskegee Airman dies (AP) 20 seconds ago 2010-01-28T23: 34: 02-08: 00
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philomath buzzed up: Pilot considered the only ace Tuskegee Airman dies (AP) 20 seconds ago 2010-01-28T23: 34: 02-08: 00
vanishedone commented on the word philomath
TLS: 'Then we need to inspect the term “philomath�?. The OED suggests that the primary meaning was “a student, esp. of mathematics, natural philosophy, and the like�?. The entry continues, “formerly popularly applied to an astrologer or prognosticator�?. This is putting the cart before the horse. The once respectable word underwent a precipitous decline around the early eighteenth century, from which it never fully recovered. Commonly it was applied to quacks, often by way of self-description. Writing on fortune-tellers in the Spectator in 1712, Joseph Addison referred scornfully to “some prophetic Philomath�?. A year later, the Tory periodical the Examiner spoke of the craze for French prophets in London in the previous decade, and remarked that “not a Philomath or Orthodox Astrologer�? could be heard in the din: even the famous almanac-maker John Partridge gave up and resolved to die a second time. (This of course refers to Jonathan Swift’s Bickerstaff pamphlets, which had predicted the death of Partridge so convincingly that most people were taken in. The Tatler had described Partridge himself as a “Philomath�?.) Leading almanacs like that of John Wing continued to use the label in an unselfconscious way. One or two land-surveyors clung on to it, and people entering puzzle competitions in magazines used it as a pseudonym. But by 1714 mathematicians and inventors pushing a serious idea found it risky to own up to this profession. The word was left to dodgy projectors and snake-oil salesmen.
'We could multiply examples from many sources. It was, however, Swift and his immediate circle who had done most to bring about this linguistic swerve. In 1709 a mock-prophecy appeared under the title of A Famous Prediction of Merlin, attributed to “T. N., Philomath�?, but really from the pen of Swift. In the following years the group of Scriblerian satirists, who also included Alexander Pope, John Gay and John Arbuthnot, wrote a series of pamphlets ridiculing vain and semi-literate projectors who promised the earth and delivered nothing. In 1717 “E. Parker, Philomath�? produced A Complete Key to the new Farce, call’d Three Hours after Marriage, a solemn pseudo-explication of the Scriblerians’ own farce.'
November 19, 2008
qms commented on the word philomath
If thou wouldst know a false philomath
Attend to the habit of speech he hath:
Who scorns the prosaic
For the pompous archaic -
He treadeth not true wisdom's path.
January 4, 2016