chrestomath

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek χρηστομαθής (khrēstomathḗs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɛstəˌmæθ/

Noun

chrestomath (plural chrestomaths)

1. (rare) A person devoted to useful learning; especially a language learner.
   • 1825, Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, pages 463–464:

     The study of the ancient languages, as now conducted in all good schools, seems to us quite as fit to exercise the attention, the memory, and the powers of analysis, combination, and taste, as any other study that can be suggested. [...] But so long as a certain knowledge of these tongues is generally considered as the badge of a liberal education, we apprehend that it is entitled to a preference. [...] And, is it not true, on the whole, that most of those acquisitions, depending, in great part, on mere memory or manual dexterity, do, in point of fact, give less exercise to the intellectual faculties, and cultivate less effectually those habits that lead to their social development, than the old, monkish, traditionary study of the classics, which the Chrestomaths of the present day hold in so slender reverence?

   • 1843, Horæ Aramaicæ, page 15:

     Rigge’s (Elias, M.A.) “Manual of the Chaldee Language” (Boston, Mass. 1832) is a valuable compendium: it consists, (1.) Of a grammar, chiefly from the German of Professor Winer (2.) A chrestomathy, or hand-book for self-tuition, containig the whole of the Chaldee found in the Old Testament with notes; and selections from the Targums; (3.) A vocabulary adapted to the chrestomath; and, (4.) An appendix on the Rabbinical character and style.

   • 2006, Die Welt des Islams, page 130:

     To stay with the chrestomath Silvestre de Sacy for a moment longer, it is interesting that despite his apparent interest in universal deep structures of language, his grammar was criticized for being too close to that of the Arabs.

Related terms

• chrestomathic
• chrestomathy