polymath

****************************************************************
Bring to mind forgotten word acquaintances with the
new edition of The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?theshmof.htm&2
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for January 14 is:

polymath   \PAH-lee-math\   noun
     : a person of encyclopedic learning

Example sentence:
     A voracious reader, Uncle James was a polymath who could discourse on 
subjects ranging from Portuguese cooking to ancient military history.

Did you know? 
     The know-it-alls in the crowd probably already know that "polymath" 
derives from the Greek "polymathes," which means "very learned." The root 
"poly-," meaning "many," can be found in a great number of English words 
including "polygon" and "polysyllabic." The second half of "polymathes" derives 
from the Greek verb "manthanein," which means "to learn" and which is also the 
source for the English word "mathematics." "Manthanein" is also the parent of 
"chrestomathy," referring to a selection of passages that help a person learn a 
language or to a volume of passages or stories that provide a sample of an 
author's work, and "philomath," a word (found in _Webster's Third New 
International Dictionary, Unabridged_) for those of us who might not know 
everything but who enjoy learning nonetheless.