POLYMATH
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POLYMATH
• polymath •
Pronunciation: pah-lee-mæth
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A person of great learning in diverse areas of human knowledge; a Renaissance Man or Woman.
Notes: This good word is yet another in our series of words that are not what they seem. No, it is not someone who can solve several math problems at once but a person of great learning. Someone who has deep knowledge of a variety of fields, though we tend to think of them, as we do Leonardo da Vinci, as excelling in those fields, too. The abstract noun is polymathy and the adjective, polymathic. I suppose a specialist would be a unimath, though this word has not emerged yet.
In Play: If you are as tired of hearing the obsequious phrase "rocket scientist" as I, you will be happy for this alternative expression, "You don't have to be a polymath to know not to lick frozen metal." Polymaths are generally very useful folks to have around; but not always: "Claire Voyant is a remarkable polymath who knows everything about everything except her job."
Word History: This excellent word is none other than Greek polymathes "knowning much" from poly "many, much" + mathein "to learn". This is the same root that we find in Sanskrit medha "wisdom" and Avestan mazda "idea, memory". In Albanian it is mund "can". The original Proto-Indo-European root, *mendh-, may contain the *men- of mental and English mind but, however obvious this might seem, there are problems in making the connection. (We are grateful to Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira—the Brazilian dude in the Alpha Agora—for being smart enough to come up with today's good word.)
Pronunciation: pah-lee-mæth
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A person of great learning in diverse areas of human knowledge; a Renaissance Man or Woman.
Notes: This good word is yet another in our series of words that are not what they seem. No, it is not someone who can solve several math problems at once but a person of great learning. Someone who has deep knowledge of a variety of fields, though we tend to think of them, as we do Leonardo da Vinci, as excelling in those fields, too. The abstract noun is polymathy and the adjective, polymathic. I suppose a specialist would be a unimath, though this word has not emerged yet.
In Play: If you are as tired of hearing the obsequious phrase "rocket scientist" as I, you will be happy for this alternative expression, "You don't have to be a polymath to know not to lick frozen metal." Polymaths are generally very useful folks to have around; but not always: "Claire Voyant is a remarkable polymath who knows everything about everything except her job."
Word History: This excellent word is none other than Greek polymathes "knowning much" from poly "many, much" + mathein "to learn". This is the same root that we find in Sanskrit medha "wisdom" and Avestan mazda "idea, memory". In Albanian it is mund "can". The original Proto-Indo-European root, *mendh-, may contain the *men- of mental and English mind but, however obvious this might seem, there are problems in making the connection. (We are grateful to Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira—the Brazilian dude in the Alpha Agora—for being smart enough to come up with today's good word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Please, astro, use Greek letters for Greek!
I beg of you, please!
Amatheia with her lovely hair, and others,
Nereus' daughters living in the ocean depths.
They filled the glistening cave, beating their breasts.
Apo
I beg of you, please!
Amatheia with her lovely hair, and others,
Nereus' daughters living in the ocean depths.
They filled the glistening cave, beating their breasts.
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
Not by a mile. A corpuscle of any colour is, in Latin letters, aimosphaírio.That's the name of the red blood cell, isn't it? I know it is.amatheia
Aμαθεια is "ignorance". Astro's quote is, I suppose, Μαθεια μαθαιυω γνωριζω, but I can't translate it.
Dear Astro, please don't be discouraged by our not understanding some of your Greek. Your English is improving incredibly fast.
Irren ist männlich
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- Grand Panjandrum
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?please don't be discouraged by our not understanding some of your Greek
Some? That's wishful thinking
Brazilian dude
Last edited by Brazilian dude on Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Languages rule!
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