different between sciolist vs polymath

English

Etymology

From Late Latin sciolus, diminutive of Latin scius (“knowing”), from sci? (“I know”) +? -ist. It first appears in English at the beginning of the 17th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?sa??l?st/
• Hyphenation: sci?o?list

Noun

sciolist (plural sciolists)

1. One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.
   • Alfred Marshall (1885) The Present Position of Economics: Among the bad results of the narrowness of the work of English economists early in the century perhaps the most unfortunate was the opportunity which it gave to sciolists to quote and misapply economic dogmas.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sciolist.

Related terms

• sciolism
• sciolistic
• sciolistical
• sciolistically

Translations

See also

• jack of all trades
• know-it-all

Anagrams

• solicits

English

Alternative forms

• polumathe, polymathe [both 17th century]

Etymology

First attested in 1624; from the Ancient Greek ????????? (polumath?s, “having learnt much”), from ????? (polús, “much”) + ???? (máth?) (math?, “learning”; from ??????? (manthán?), manthan? “I learn”); compare opsimath, philomath, polyhistor, polymathic, polymathist, and polymathy, as well as the French polymathe.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p?l?mæ?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p?li?mæ?/, /?p?l?mæ?/

Noun

polymath (plural polymaths)

1. A person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge.
   • 1624, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (2^nd edn.), p.6:

     To be thought and held Polumathes and Polihistors.

Synonyms

• polyhistor
• renaissance man

Antonyms

• monomath

Coordinate terms

• factotum, handyman, jack of all trades, sciolist

Related terms

• automath
• polymathy
• polymathic
• polymathist

Translations

References

• “polymath, n. (a.)” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd ed., 1989]
• “polymath, n. and adj.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [3rd ed., September 2006]