Pantomath
{{Short description|Person who wants to know or knows everything}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
A pantomath is a person who wants to know or knows everything. The word itself is not to be found in common online English dictionaries, the OED, dictionaries of obscure words, or dictionaries of neologisms.[http://onelook.com/?w=pantomath&scwo=1&sswo=1 "pantomath" @ OneLook.com] - metasearch across 1,000+ dictionaries returns no hits other than this article.
Etymology
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2016}}
A pantomath (pantomathēs, παντομαθής, meaning "having learnt all", from the Greek roots παντ- "all", "every" and the root μαθ-, meaning "learning", "understanding") is a person whose astonishingly wide interests and knowledge span the entire range of the arts and sciences.
Uses
Pantomath is typically used to convey the sense that a great individual has achieved a pinnacle of learning, that an "automath" has taken autodidacticism to an endpoint. As an example, the obscure and rare term seems to have been applied to those with an astonishingly wide knowledge and interests by these two authors from different eras: Jonathan Miller has been called a pantomath,{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/dr-jonathan-miller-clever-is-as-clever-does-46979.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/dr-jonathan-miller-clever-is-as-clever-does-46979.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|author=Jackson, Kevin|title=Cover Story: Clever is as clever does|work=The Independent on Sunday|date=11 July 2004|pages=6–9|accessdate=3 December 2020}} as has Rupert Hart-Davis.[http://lhdletters.inwriting.org/annos1.shtml Lyttleton Letters Annos I]
See also
Notes
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External links
- Excerpts from a discussion of the word at Wordsmith.org:
- [http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=44976&an=0&page=235#Post44976 Excerpt one]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- [http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=44976&page=235&fpart=4&vc=1 Excerpt two]{{dead link|date=May 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}