A
pantomath means, etymologically, a person who knows everything. Given that the actual instances of the word usage in written works are so counted, most statements about the usage or the meaning of the word are bound to remain speculative. The word itself is not to be found in common online English dictionaries, the OED, dictionaries of obscure words, or dictionaries of neologisms.
Since there are no omniscient human beings, logic dictates that there are no literal nonfictional pantomaths, but the word pantomath seems to have been used to imply a polymath in a superlative sense, a
ne plus ultra (nothing more beyond) as it were, one who satisfies requirements even stricter than those to be applied to the
polymathA polymath is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable...
.
A
pantomath means, etymologically, a person who knows everything. Given that the actual instances of the word usage in written works are so counted, most statements about the usage or the meaning of the word are bound to remain speculative. The word itself is not to be found in common online English dictionaries, the OED, dictionaries of obscure words, or dictionaries of neologisms.
Since there are no omniscient human beings, logic dictates that there are no literal nonfictional pantomaths, but the word pantomath seems to have been used to imply a polymath in a superlative sense, a
ne plus ultra (nothing more beyond) as it were, one who satisfies requirements even stricter than those to be applied to the
polymathA polymath is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable...
. In theory, a pantomath is not to be confused with a polymath in its less strict sense, much less with the related but very different terms
philomathA philomath is a lover of learning, from Greek philos + Greek manthanein, math-...
and
know-it-allA know-it-all or know-all is either someone who has a large amount of knowledge or someone who professes to have a large amount of knowledge, but who actually knows very little at all....
.
Etymology
A
pantomath (
pantomathēs, παντομαθής, meaning "having learnt all", from the
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
roots παντ- 'all, every' and the root μαθ-, meaning "learning, understanding") is a person whose astonishingly wide interests and knowledge span the entire range of the arts and sciences.
Uses
Typically used to convey the sense that a great individual has achieved a pinnacle of learning, that an
automath has taken
autodidacticismAutodidacticism is self-education or self-directed learning. An autodidact is a mostly self-taught person, as opposed to learning in a school setting or from a full-time tutor or mentor....
to an endpoint.
As an example, the obscure and rare term seems to have been applied to those with an astonishingly wide knowledge and interests by these two authors from different eras:
An article stated that G. M. Young was called a pantomath, as did
Rupert Hart-DavisSir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
.
The following example attempts to illustrate the occurrence of these "polymaths in a superlative sense"; (however, it should not be taken as implying that there is a source where the word pantomath is used to describe Goethe). According to a critical view, Goethe's monumental breadth of knowledge and accomplishments, together with his serene, supernal wisdom, a wisdom which has been described as aloof, even inhuman, made him worthy of the denomination "
OlympianThe Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon , in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes...
".
External links
- Excerpts from a discussion of the word at Wordsmith.org: