learned
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English lerned, lernd, lernyd, equivalent to learn + -ed, which replaced the earlier lered (“taught”), from Old English (ġe)lǣred, past participle of lǣran (“to teach”).[1] Learn formerly had the meaning “to teach”, which is now found only in nonstandard speech, as well as its standard meaning of “to learn”.
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
| Examples (law) |
|---|
|
learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)
- Having much learning, knowledgeable, erudite; highly educated.
- Synonyms: brainy, erudite, knowledgeable, scholarly, educated; see also Thesaurus:learned
- Antonyms: ignorant, stupid, thick, uneducated
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- the learned Merlin, well could tell, / Vnder what coast of heauen the man did dwell […]
- 1854, Charles Edward Pollock, Lake v. Plaxton, 156 Eng. Rep. 412 (Exch.) 414; 10 Ex. 199, 200 (Eng.)
- My learned Brother Cresswell directed the jury to make the calculation […]
- 2011 Feb, Jess Lourey, “A Pyramid Approach to Novel Writing”, in Writer, volume 124, number 2, page 30-32:
- The book opens with the Time Traveler dining with learned peers in late 1800s England, where he is trying to convince them that he has invented a time machine.
- 2011 Spring, Jill Lepore, “How Longfellow Woke the Dead”, in American Scholar, volume 80, number 2, page 33-46:
- HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW used to be both the best-known poet in the English-speaking world and the most beloved, adored by the learned and the lowly ...
- (law, formal) A courteous description used in various ways to refer to lawyers or judges.
- Scholarly, exhibiting scholarship.
- 1831 March, anonymous, “The History of the Doric Race”, in The Edinburgh Review, volume LIII, number CV (book review), page 130:
- But our limits will not permit us to discuss the many important and curious questions respecting the science of government, to which this learned work invites attention.
Usage notesEdit
- This adjectival sense of this word is sometimes spelled with a grave accent, learnèd. This is meant to indicate that the second ‘e’ is pronounced as /ɪ/ or /ə/, rather than being silent, as in the verb form. This spelling is largely restricted to poetry and other works in which it is important that the adjective’s disyllabicity be made explicit.
Derived termsEdit
terms derived from learned (having much knowledge)
TranslationsEdit
having much learning
|
scholarly — see scholarly
Etymology 2Edit
Past participle of learn.
Alternative formsEdit
- learnt (UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand; alternative in Canada; rarely used in American English)
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
learned
AdjectiveEdit
learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)
- Derived from experience; acquired by learning.
- Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.
TranslationsEdit
acquired by learning
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
ReferencesEdit
- ^ “learned, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Further readingEdit
- learned in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- learned in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911