Monday, March 9, 2015

Word of the Day

polymathy
 \ puh-LIM-uh-thee \, noun;  
1.learning in many fields; encyclopedic knowledge.

Quotes:
It was the ultimate test of Franklin’s scholarship and polymathy , a phonetic alphabet designed to have a “more natural Order,” than the existing system.
-- Jimmy Stamp, "Benjamin Franklin's Phonetic Alphabet," Smithsonian , May 10, 2013

Even so, Ross’s eccentricity cannot fully obscure his impressive polymathy —he expounds just as fluently on geology and the coffeehouses of Samuel Johnson-era London as he does on Rogers’s innovative war-making.
-- Marc Tracy, "Nonfiction Chronicle," New York Times , June 24, 2009

Origin:
Polymathy  descends from the Greek words poly  meaning "much," and manthánein  meaning "to learn." It entered English in the mid-1600s.

Dictionary.com