5 February 2015

polymath

[pol-ee-math]

noun
1. a person of great learning in several fields of study; polyhistor.

Origin
Greek
1615-1625; < Greek polymathḗs learned, having learned much, equivalent to poly- poly- + -mathēs, adj. derivative of manthánein to learn

Related forms
polymathic, adjective

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for polymath
– Part literary critic, part existential elegist, he presents himself as the polymath ‘s polymath.
– The polymath ‘s polymath on his epic cookbook, patent-licensing and the law, and why he’s getting into nuclear power.
– He has been a polymath all his life, plunging into one discipline after another.

Anagram

opal myth
play moth

Today’s aphorism

You will never be free until you free yourself from the prison of your own false thoughts.

– Philip Arnold

On this day

5 February 1914 – birth of William Seward Burroughs, otherwise known as William S. Burroughs or William Lee, Beat Generation author, painter, spoken word performer. The beat generation rose to prominence in the 1950s and experimented with innovation in art, style, rules and drugs. Burroughs work includes Junkie, Queer, and Naked Lunch. Burroughs died on 2 August 1997.

5 February 1922 – Readers Digest first published by DeWitt and Lila Wallace.

5 February 2009 – China tells Canada not to accept 17 Chinese Uyghur prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Uyghurs had applied for refugee status in Canada. They had been arrested in Afghanistan during the 2001 US invasion.