• Erudite

    Pronunciation

    • RP IPA: /ˈɛr.(j)ÊŠ.daɪt/
    • US IPA: /ˈɛr.(j)u.daɪt/, IPA: /ˈɛr.(j)É™.daɪt/

    Origin

    From Latin ērudītus, participle of ērudiō ("educate, train"), from e- ("out of") + rudis ("rude, unskilled").

    Full definition of erudite

    Adjective

    erudite

    1. Learned, scholarly, with emphasis on knowledge gained from books.
      • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, , Ch. XII:At all events, if it involved any secret information in regard to old Roger Chillingworth, it was in a tongue unknown to the erudite clergyman, and did but increase the bewilderment of his mind.
      • 1913, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, ch. 43:Elmer Moffatt had been magnificent, rolling out his alternating effects of humour and pathos, stirring his audience by moving references to the Blue and the Gray, convulsing them by a new version of Washington and the Cherry Tree . . ., dazzling them by his erudite allusions and apt quotations.
      • 2006, Jeff Israely, "Preaching Controversy," Time, 17 Sept.:Perhaps his erudite mind does not quite yet grasp how to transform his beloved scholarly explorations into effective papal politics.

    Synonyms

    Related terms

    © Wiktionary