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The Collaborative International Dictionary
erudition

erudition \er`u*di"tion\ ([e^]r`[-u]*d[i^]sh"[u^]n), n. [L. eruditio: cf. F. ['e]rudition.] The act of instructing; the result of thorough instruction; the state of being erudite or learned; the acquisitions gained by extensive reading or study; particularly, learning in literature or criticism, as distinct from the sciences; scholarship.

The management of a young lady's person is not be overlooked, but the erudition of her mind is much more to be regarded.
--Steele.

The gay young gentleman whose erudition sat so easily upon him.
--Macaulay.

Syn: Literature; learning. See Literature.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
erudition

c.1400, "instruction, education," from Latin eruditionem (nominative eruditio) "an instructing, instruction, learning," noun of action from past participle stem of erudire "to educate, instruct, polish" (see erudite). Meaning "learning, scholarship" is from 1520s.

Wiktionary
erudition

n. profound knowledge, especially that based on learning and scholarship.

WordNet
erudition

n. profound scholarly knowledge [syn: eruditeness, learnedness, learning, scholarship, encyclopedism, encyclopaedism]

Wikipedia
Erudition

thumb|Portrait of a man writing at a table (Scholar in his study).Portrayed is probably a Protestant preacher and theologian with the Bible opened on the table. A dog depicted as a companion to the scholar is a symbol of fidelity, vigilance, and regularity in the research, due to the natural intelligence and intuition assigned to this animal. A parrot is a symbol of erudition and eloquence. ( Hendrik Martenszoon Sorgh)

The word erudition came into Middle English from Latin. A scholar is erudite (Latin eruditus) when instruction and reading followed by digestion and contemplation have effaced all rudeness (e- (ex-) + rudis), that is to say smoothed away all raw, untrained incivility. Common usage has blurred the distinction from "learned" but the two terms are quite different.

Usage examples of "erudition".

Tozri was a good friend and an unobtrusive roommate, and was spending much of his spare time in their room reading everything about Eron he could find in the enormous hold library, which erudition he was passing on to Kraxxi and his sisters.

It sported a subject index, a lexical part and an alphabetically arranged series of in-depth essays authored by the best in every field of human erudition.

The room in fact was as depressing from its slatternliness as from its atmosphere of erudition.

As for Captain Tucker, Adams considered him able and attentive, though, to judge by the few books in his cabin, no doubt lacking in erudition.

The process that began with him lasted for two centuries, to the patriarchs of authentic erudition, Ussher and Pearson, Blondel and Launoy, the Bollandists of Antwerp and the Benedictines of Saint-Maur.

It takes a very moderate amount of erudition to unearth a charlatan like the supposed father of the infinitesimal dosing system.

His high shrill voice was mocked, his whinnying laugh was copied, his erudition thought beyond a joke, his elderliness worthy of the starring role in a farce.

A man of great erudition, with privileged access to the Library of Greater LA computer, and of Ulyssean sneakiness, he is always scoring over his colleagues.

Our practitioners need a library like this, for with all their skill and devotion there is too little genuine erudition, such as a liberal profession ought to be able to claim for many of its members.

He larded his sermons with quotations from English literature and poetry in an attempt to show erudition, but the effect only seemed pompous and long-winded.

More than twenty years of wisdom and erudition are buried in servers all over the world.

Unlike his other contemporaries, he does not have a promiscuous, sex life and prefers to read or study artthe paintings of the Japanese artist Kuniyoshi are among his favouritesand often surprises the wealthy Californians who form the majority of his clients and suspects with his knowledge and erudition.

He displayed his erudition, cited pell-mell cantharides, upas, the manchineel, vipers.

The authors of that unequal work have compiled the Sassanian dynasty with erudition and diligence.

The amazing mechanical representation of the solar system which you conceived & executed, has never been surpassed by any but the work of which it is a copy. Are those powers then, which being intended for the erudition of the world are, like air and light, the world's common property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace drudgery of governing a single state, a work which my be executed by men of an ordinary stature, such as are always & everywhere to be found?