Opsimath
<p >An <b>opsimath</b> can refer to a person who begins, or continues, to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" title="Knowledge" >study</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning" title="Learning" >learn</a> late in life.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup> The word is derived from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language" >Greek</a> ὀψέ (<i>opse</i>), meaning 'late' and μανθάνω (<i>manthano</i>), meaning 'learn'.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup>
<b>Opsimathy</b> was once frowned upon, used as a put down with implications of laziness,<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup> and considered less effective by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education" title="Education" >educators</a> than early learning.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup> The emergence of "opsimath clubs"<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-5" >[5]</a></sup> has demonstrated that opsimathy has shed much of this negative connotation,<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-6" >[6]</a></sup> and that this approach may, in fact, be desirable. <sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opsimath#cite_note-7" >[7]</a></sup>
Notable opsimaths include <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Henry_Rawlinson" title="Sir Henry Rawlinson" class="mw-redirect" >Sir Henry Rawlinson</a>, the fictitious character <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Henry_at_Rawlinson_End_(recording)" title="Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (recording)" >Sir Henry Rawlinson</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Moses" title="Grandma Moses" >Grandma Moses</a>, mathematician <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s" title="Paul Erdős" >Paul Erdős</a> (who published papers up until his death at age 83), and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_the_Elder" title="Cato the Elder" >Cato the Elder</a> who learned <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language" title="Greek language" >Greek</a> only at the age of 80.</p>