Also 7 in adapted forms encyclopædie- -y, -pedie, pedy, -ped(e. [a. late L. encyclopædia, a. pseudo-Gr. ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, an erroneous form (said to be a false reading) occurring in MSS. of Quintilian, Pliny, and Galen, for ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία ‘encyclical education,’ the circle of arts and sciences considered by the Greeks as essential to a liberal education (cf. ENCYCLICAL A. 1).
The spelling with æ has been preserved from becoming obs. by the fact that many of the works so called have Latin titles, as Encyclopædia Britannica, Londinensis, etc.]
1. The circle of learning; a general course of instruction.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. xiii. The circle of doctrine … is in one worde of greke Encyclopedia.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., To Rdr. a 3 a. In this Encyclopædie and round of knowledge.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 187. Borrowed from the Bank of the Encyclopædia, or generall Learning.
1662. Phillips, Dict., Advt., A Dictionary for the English Tongue, would require an Encyclopedy of knowledge.
1681. T. Mannyngham Two Disc., 54–5. They … make … the whole Encyclopede of Arts and Sciences but a brisker Circulation of the blood.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, III. iii. 459. The Student … who shall think fit to take so useful a Theory in his Encyclopædy.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xx. In you are lodg’d a Cornucopia, an Encyclopedia, an unmeasurable Profundity of Knowledge.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., 277. An education which aimed at a little encyclopædia of elementary ‘knowledge.’
2. A literary work containing extensive information on all branches of knowledge, usually arranged in alphabetical order.
The word in this sense appears first as the title of certain works published in the 17th cent. esp. that of Alstedius (see quot. 1819.
1644. T. Diconson, in Bulwer, Chirologia, a 2. Thy Enchiridion … became th’ Encycloped.
1662. Evelyn, Chalcogr. (1769), 123. A kind of encyclopedia of all … and memorable things.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., II. 342. Mr. Record, had scarce any Precedents or Patterns in his Encyclopædy of Learning to Copy after.
1768. (title) Encyclopædia Britannica.
1819. Pantologia, s.v. Encyclopædia, The first work we have seen under the title of Encyclopædia, is J. H. Alstedii Encyclopædia, which was published in 1632, in two vols. folio.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 2. 3. The Bible is … by no means indeed an Encyclopædia.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., i. (1873), 24–5. An ancient Chinese encyclopædia.
humorously. 1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxiv. Mr. Pickwick … looked encyclopædias at Mr. Peter Magnus.
1885. Illust. Lond. News, 19 Dec., 648. Maida [a girl] was an encyclopædia of knowledge.
b. Sometimes applied spec. to the French work ‘Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des Sciences, des Arts, et des Métiers’ (1751–65), by Diderot, D’Alembert, and other eminent scholars and men of science.
1772. (title) Select Essays from the Encyclopedy.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 165. The vast undertaking of the Encyclopædia.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 161. Diderot was busy [1750] with the first volume of the Encyclopædia.
3. An elaborate and exhaustive repertory of information on all the branches of some particular art or department of knowledge; esp. one arranged in alphabetical order.
1801. (title) The Encyclopædia of Wit.
1807. (title) The Vocal Encyclopædia: comprising a variety of popular songs, [etc.].
1859. Smiles, Self-Help, 61. Introduced in the historical part of his [Loudon’s] laborious Encyclopædia of Gardening…. The result of which appeared in his Encyclopædias.
1881. (title) Hamersly’s Naval Encyclopædia.
Hence Encyclopædiac a. [see -AC], = ENCYCLOPÆDIC; Encyclopædiacal a. [see -ACAL], = prec.; Encyclopædial a. [see -AL], of or pertaining to an encyclopædia (see ENCYCLOPÆDIA 2).
1886. Athenæum, 27 Feb., 298/3. His encyclopædiac knowledge renders it probable he will make an excellent librarian.
1836. Blackw. Mag., XL. 589. It is the object of many … to render instruction encyclopædiacal.
1848. Fraser’s Mag., XXXVII. 216. The tendency of the Alexandrian school was encyclopædiacal throughout.
1818. Blackw. Mag., III. 658/1. Our Encyclopædial lion is fangless and toothless.
