philomath

plural philomaths

1. archaicA lover of learning; a scholar.

   Jerman for twenty years past had been the author of a Quaker almanac, and had for about the same time been engaged in a fierce almanac warfare with Jacob Taylor, a philomath and a printer of Friends’ books.

   1896, John Bach McMaster, Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, page 108

   1 more example

   For this (in my humble opinion, not very important purpose, and fitter to employ the talent of a philomath than a Newton) he and Leibnitz, much about the same, struck out a fluxional method, which they both took for a demonstration.

   1824, Rev. Philip Skelton, The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Philip Skelton, Rector of Fintona, page 27

2. An astrologer or predictor.

   "The success of an almanac depended upon the appeal of the "philomath"-the resident astrologer who did the writing and predicting."

   2007, Thomas Fleming, Benjamin Franklin: Inventing America, Sterling Point Books, age 33