Learned

ppl. a. [f. LEARN v. + -ED¹.]

  † 1.  In distinctly participial sense. Obs. rare.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., V. 121. This mone also, by rather lerned reson [L. ea ratione qua dictum est] To sette and graffe in places temporate Pomgarnat is.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, I. (1633), 25. The error committed … becomes a sharpely learned experience.

1714.  Tickell, Fragm. Hunting, in Steele, Poet. Misc., 179. [A hound] True to the Master’s Voice, and learned Horn.

  2.  Of a person: In early use, that has been taught; instructed, educated. In later use with narrowed sense: Having profound knowledge gained by study, esp. in language or some department of literary or historical science; deeply read, erudite. Const. in, † of. (Superseding the earlier LERED.)

  Learned society: a society formed for the prosecution of some branch of learning or science.

c. 1340.  Cursor M., 10416 (Laud). This lady was of muche price lovid and lernyd [older texts lered] ware and wyse.

1382.  Wyclif, Acts vii. 22. And Moyses was lernd [1388 lerned] in al the wysdom of Egipcians.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 3940. Eneas … was … of litterure & langage lurnyt ynoghe.

1556.  Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden), 48. The byshoppe of Wynchester, with dyvers other byshoppes & lernede men.

1639.  Fuller, Holy War, III. xxix. (1840), 170. He was very learned … especially for a prince, who only baiteth at learning.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 1. A Learn’d Society of late … Agree’d … To search the Moon by her own light.

1698.  Keill, Exam. Theory Earth (1734), 312. That very Learned Friend of his … has given the World reason enough to suspect him.

1712.  Hearne, Collect. (O.H.S.), III. 488. He was learned in the British tongue.

1772.  Junius Lett., lxviii. 335. Learned … you are, and quick in apprehension.

1791–1823.  D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 319/2. He is a ‘learned’ man who has embraced most knowledge on the particular subject of his investigation.

1810.  Scott, Biog. Notices, Prose Wks. (1870), II. 202. That dreaded phenomenon, a learned lady. Ibid. (1823), One Volume more. John Pinkerton next, and I’m truly concern’d … I can’t call that worthy so candid as learn’d.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, VII. 299. Not learned, save in gracious household ways.

1871.  C. Davies, Metric Syst., II. 40. A system … made … by a committee of learned professors.

1898.  H. Calderwood, Hume, vi. 85. The learned circles of Paris.

  b.  absol. Chiefly in pl. the learned = ‘men of learning,’ ‘the literati.’

a. 1568.  Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 45. This, lewde and learned, by common experience, know.

1591.  Spenser, Teares Muses, 216. Each idle wit … doth the Learneds taske upon him take.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., 768. Sundry ceremonies, which I leaue to the learned in Christian antiquities.

1673.  Dryden, Prol. (Silent Woman) to Univ. Oxford, 24. The learned in schools … Studies with care the anatomy of man.

1736.  Bolingbroke, Study & Use Hist., v. (1777), 122. Let us leave the credulous learned to write history without materials.

1817.  Scott, Search after Happiness, vi. E’en let the learn’d go search, and tell me if I’m wrong.

1879.  Jas. Grant, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 284/2. His paper on optics speedily drew upon him the attention of all the learned in Europe.

  c.  Inflected in compar. and superl. Now arch.

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 43. The hop bushe is called … of y^e Barbarus writers humulus, of the later learneder writer Iupulus.

1575–85.  Abp. Sandys, Serm., xiv. 249. With all the learnedst of latter times.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. ii. 35. Canacee … was the learnedst ladie in her dayes.

a. 1619.  Fotherby, Atheom., Pref. (1622), 22. Diuers of my learnedest and best affected Friends.

1627.  Bp. Hall, Passion Serm., Wks. 425. I leaue it modestly in the middest; let the learneder iudge.

1646.  S. Bolton, Arraignm. Err., 101. The learnedst men … may be deceivers.

1648.  Milton, Tenure Kings (1650), 51. Among our own Divines two of the lernedest.

1661.  Boyle, Spring of Air, Pref. (1682), 6. For more learneder men than I [etc.].

1693.  W. Freke, Sel. Ess., xxxiv. 224. I may make myself learneder by reading.

1822.  Hazlitt, Table-t., Ser. II. x. (1869), 204. A lady had objected to my use of the word learneder, as bad grammar.

1824.  Lamb, Lett. to Coleridge, Lett. (1837), II. 164. Testimony that had been disputed by learneder clerks than I.

1870.  Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Success, Wks. (Bohn), III. 120. The gravest and learnedest courts in this country shudder to face a new question.

  d.  Said of one ‘learned in the law’; hence applied by way of courtesy to any member of the legal profession.

c. 1485.  Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 48. Yt is thought by the forsayd lernedmen, that [etc.].

1524.  Hen. VIII., in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 220. Our welbiloued subgiet Edward Mountegue, lernedman.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 167. You heare the learn’d Bellario what he writes.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), VI. 579. The learned Judges having given their opinion … there is nothing remaining for the consideration of the House.

  ¶ e.  transf. Of an animal trained to make a show of intelligence.

1833.  Marryat, P. Simple, ix. There was also the learned pig … and a hundred other sights.

1837.  Lover, Rory O’More, xvi. (1897), 128. Here is the wondherful larned pig that knows the five quarters o’ the world, and more.

  3.  Of things: Pertaining to, manifesting, or characterized by, profound knowledge gained by study.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 10. I will not dispute this question … A learned ignorance shall better content me.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Atheism (Arb.), 337. Learned Times.

1632.  Milton, L’Allegro, 132. Then to the well-trod stage anon, If Jonson’s learned Sock be on.

1651.  Fuller, Abel Rediv., Perkins (1867), II. 148. The scholar could hear no learneder … sermons.

1763.  Dodsley, Pref. to Shenstone’s Wks. The father resolved to give him a learned education.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 455. A treatise of tenures by a learned hand.

1823.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Tombs in Abbey. Your learned fondness for the architecture of your ancestors. Ibid. (1824), Capt. Jackson. The anecdote … diffused a learned air through the apartment.

1837.  Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857), I. 379. The Ancients … were wanting in Learned Ignorance.

1874.  Deutsch, Rem., 264. A learned and lucid paper in the current Edinburgh Review.

  b.  In art-criticism often applied to draughtsmanship, coloring, etc., with the sense: Exhibiting thorough knowledge of method.

a. 1830.  Hazlitt, Fine Arts (1873), 231. The drawing of N. Poussin … is merely learned and anatomical.

  c.  Of a language, profession or science: Pursued or studied chiefly by men of learning. Of the words in a language: Introduced by men of learning. Of plants: Known only from books (rare).

1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, xli. (1887), 235. The three learned toungues, the latin, the greeke, the hebrew.

1623.  Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., Pref. (1638), 2. He knew moreover the learneder tongues and arts as well as they.

1696.  Whiston, Theory Earth, II. (1722), 139. The learned Sciences seem to have been anciently much better known.

1785.  Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., Introd. 4. These learned plants however must be found in nature.

1824.  L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 160. The English tongue is, in many respects, materially different from the learned languages.

1850.  Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 162. Students in the learned professions at Rome.

1869.  Kitchin, Brachet’s Hist. Fr. Gram., Introd. 32. Words of very different origin,… the one popular, the other learned. Ibid., 39. This influx of learned words increases throughout the fifteenth century.

  Hence † Learnedish a., learned-like.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 250. Some write in Hebrew … T’ avoid the Critic … And seem more learnedish, than [etc.].