Make Your Point: POLYMATH

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pronounce POLYMATH:

PAUL ee math

connect this word to others:

A high five to Mark, who pointed me toward the word polymath. He spotted it in a description of Francis Bacon, the statesman/philosopher/librarian who, some people argue, may have written some of Shakespeare's plays.

Thanks, Mark! Polymath is a cool word! And it's only been, um, almost three years since you emailed it to me.

In my defense, we had a lot of cool words starting with P to cover before we rolled around to polymath. Such as:

1. Pol__ic, meaning "an angry rant," from a Greek word for "warlike."

2. Poly_____atic, meaning "made of many colors," which first described a kind of chemical acid.

and 3. Poco_____te, meaning "a person who's always relaxed and never gets worried or excited about anything," from a novel by Voltaire.

Could you recall all three?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

We've used the word "polymath" in English since the year 1624 or so. It comes from Greek, where polys means "much or many" and manthanein means "to learn." (The word "mathematics" also traces back to manthanein.)

So, literally speaking, a polymath is someone who has learned a great deal of things.

In other words, a polymath is someone who's very educated and very accomplished in many different subjects.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Usually a noun, the countable kind: "She's a polymath."

Occasionally an adjective: "He was a polymath achiever."

Other forms:

The plural is "polymaths."

The noun for the idea or the quality of being very educated in many different fields is "polymathy."

There's an adjective, but it's rare: "polymathic." (Not "polymathematical"? Sadly, no, but you could try using it and see if it catches on.)

If you're concerned that your readers won't understand that "polymath" is a noun for a person, you can swap in the word "polymathist," which is rare but easy to understand.

how to use it:

Pick the formal, academic, semi-common word "polymath" when you need to strike a positive tone as you sum up someone's accomplishments.

This word can really come in handy when you're talking about a famous person who's famous for lots of reasons. It's quicker, for example, to refer to Ben Franklin as a polymath than as a statesman/diplomat/writer/inventor/scientist/philosopher.

If you like, you can make "polymath" more specific by calling someone, say, a "musical polymath," meaning they've mastered many instruments or many styles of music.

To use the adjective (which is rare), you could talk about polymathic people, or polymathic talent, learning, or instruction.

Lastly, it can be fun to pair the terms "polymath" (someone fluent in many subjects) and "polyglot" (someone fluent in many languages). Here's Maya Jaggi: "A polyglot and polymath, [George Steiner] is often credited with recasting the role of the critic."

examples:

"Claude Shannon, the brilliant MIT polymath who helped invent the digital world in which we live today, plunged into all kinds of pursuits, from juggling to poetry to designing the first wearable computer."
— Tom Vanderbilt, The Guardian, 7 January 2021

"[Alexander Hamilton:] They think me Macbeth, and ambition is my folly.
I’m a polymath, a pain in the ass, a massive pain."
— Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: An American Musical, 2015

has this page helped you understand "polymath"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "polymath" without saying "a person with broad, deep knowledge" or "a scholar in multiple fields."

try it out:

Check out this example from The Guardian:

"Sir Jonathan Miller, the writer, theatre and opera director, and member of the Beyond the Fringe comedy team, has died at the age of 85... Although he hated the term 'polymath' his contribution to British culture was wide and praised in many fields."

Why do you think this accomplished man disliked being called a polymath? If you, too, earned praise in the media for the breadth of your accomplishments, would you be annoyed at being called a polymath? Why or why not?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "Oh Hey, That's the Title!"

I'll give you a short excerpt from a novel, a play, or a short story. In this excerpt, a character or a narrator actually says the story's title. (If not verbatim, then almost.) And you give me the story's title.

Highlight the hints if you need them, and see the answer by scrolling all the way down. Enjoy!

Try this one today:

"That's how it would feel again, getting that ball, tucking it under his arm, and going forever like someone in the euphoria of flight. Nothing in the world could ever be like it. No other thing could ever compare, running down that field in the glow of those _____ _____ _____ with your legs pumping so high they seemed to touch the sky and thousands on their feet cheering wildly as the gap between you and everyone else just got wider and wider and wider."

To reveal the hints below, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: This story was published in the year... 1990.
Hint 2: This story was written by... H. G. Bissinger.
Hint 3: The first letters of each word in this title are... "F_____ N_____ L_____."

review this word:

1. The opposite of a POLYMATH could be

A. a POLYCHROME (a many-colored work of art).
B. a MONOMYTH (a broad theme uniting many myths).
C. a SPECIALIST (a person with knowledge in a specific area).

2. In "_____," an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jonathan morphs into a polymath, ____.

A. Superstar .. a world-renowned writer, singer, athlete, actor, and demon slayer
B. Once More, With Feeling .. disappearing entirely from the action of the episode
C. Life Serial .. a semi-talented magic user capable of trapping Buffy in a temporary time loop

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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