Polymath
9/2/2025, 10:28:40 AM
A polymath[a][1] or polyhistor[b][2] is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, but some are gifted at explaining abstractly and creatively.[3]
Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man, often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual.
Etymology
The word polymath derives from the Greek roots poly-, which means "much" or "many," and manthanein, which means "to learn."[4] Plutarch wrote that the Ancient Greek muse Polyhymnia was sometimes known as Polymatheia, describing her as responsible for "that faculty of the soul which inclines to attain and keep knowledge."[5]
In Western Europe, the first work to use the term polymathy in its title, De Polymathia tractatio: integri operis de studiis veterum (A Treatise on Polymathy: The Complete Work on the Studies of the Ancients), was published in 1603 by Johann von Wowern, a Hamburg philosopher.[6][7][8] Von Wowern defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies ... ranging freely through all the fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them".[6] Von Wowern lists erudition, literature, philology, philomathy, and polyhistory as synonyms.
The earliest recorded use of the term in the English language is from 1624, in the second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton;[9] the form polymathist is slightly older, first appearing in the Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes of Richard Montagu in 1621.[10] Use in English of the similar term polyhistor dates from the late 16th century.[11]