Polygraph (author)

{{Short description|Author who writes in a variety of fields}}

{{about|an author that can write on a variety of different subjects|the early 19th-century device used for duplication of writing|Polygraph (duplicating device)|the modern forensic instrument|Polygraph|the automatic signing instrument|Autopen}}

File:Denis Diderot by Louis-Michel van Loo.jpg by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767 The painting depicts the French polygraph Denis Diderot ]]

A polygraph (from Ancient Greek: πολύς, poly = "many" and γράφειν, graphein = "to write") is an author who writes in a variety of fields.{{Cite web|title=Definition of polygraph {{!}} Dictionary.com|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/polygraph|access-date=2020-12-12|website=www.dictionary.com|language=en}}

In literature, the term polygraph is often applied to certain writers of antiquity such as Aristotle, Plutarch, Varro, Cicero and Pliny the Elder. Polygraphs still existed in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but, other than writers of books for children, they have become rarer in modern times due to the specialisation of knowledge. Voltaire and Diderot are examples of modern polygraphs.