vbl. sb. Forms: 1 leornung, 4 leorning, 4–6 lerning, -yng(h)(e, 7 Sc. leirning, 9 vulg. larnin, 6– learning. [OE. leornung, -ing, f. leornian: see LEARN v. and -ING1. Cf. OHG. lirnunga.]
1. The action of the vb. LEARN. a. The action of receiving instruction or acquiring knowledge.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., Pref. (Sweet), 3. Hu ʓiorne hie wæron æʓðer ʓe ymb lare ʓe ymb liornunga.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 14811 (Trin.). To him was þe lawe bitauȝt Þat he him self bi lernyng lauȝt.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 67. Gladnesse whiche encresses daily in me in lernynghe.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1165/2. He … for the pouertie of his father … not able to be mainteined here at learning.
1644. Milton, Educ., Wks. (1847), 98/2. The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents.
1740. J. Clarke, Educ. Youth (ed. 3), 18. It … renders the Learning of the English Rules more tedious abundantly, than they would be.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. IX. iii. 220. Vigilance … required of us, besides learning of many practical lessons.
1862. R. Owen, in 19th Cent., Dec. (1897), 992. There’s nothing so good for learning, as teaching.
† b. Teaching; schooling. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 393. Þe gospels of Crist written in Englische to moost lernyng of oure nacioun.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., IV. x. 255. It is gode for to speke therof to the lernynge of thoos that shall most iuge therof.
1727. Philip Quarll (1816), 34. The old man determined to give him his learning, if his relations would find him in board, and other necessaries.
1802. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., 44. O, cud I afford it, mair larnin thou’d get!
† 2. What is learnt or taught: a. a lesson, instruction; b. information or direction; c. the ‘teaching’ of a person; a doctrine; also, a doctrine or maxim in law; d. a branch of learning; a science; e. an acquirement. Obs.
a. 1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 174. That nis no treuthe of trinite but … a leornyng for lewed men, the latere forte dele.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, cxxxvii. M vij. The thre enseygnementes or lernynges whiche Cathon gaf to his sone.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., I. i. 43. The king…. Puts to him all the Learnings that his time Could make him the receiuer of.
b. c. 1386. Chaucer, Sec. Nun’s T., 184. Right as hym was taught by his lernynge He foond this hooly olde Vrban.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 47. I did inquire it: And haue my Learning from some true reports.
c. 1526. Tindale, Rev. ii. 24. As many as have nott this lernynge.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Rom., 34. To expounde unknowen learnynges.
1560. Pilkington, Aggeus, C ij (Matt. xv. 9). Teaching learninges which are the commaundementes of men.
a. 1625. Boys, Wks. (1629–30), 128. Christ the way, the truth and the life … The truth in his learning, the way for his liuing.
a. 1626. Bacon, Max. & Uses Com. Law, Pref. (1636), 2. Particular and positive learnings of lawes doe easily decline from a good temper of justice.
d. 1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XI. xi. 315. It is no rare thing in all learninges … to haue one thing more generall then an other.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. vi. § 13 (1873), 49. He did send his divine truth into the world, waited on with other learnings.
1613. Sir H. Finch, Law (1636), 6. The rules of Reason are of two sorts; some taken from forreigne learnings, both diuine and humane.
e. 1602. Shaks., Ham., V. ii. 35. I once did hold it … a basenesse to write faire, and laboured much How to forget that learning.
3. Knowledge, esp. of language or literary or historical science, acquired by systematic study; also, the possession of such knowledge, learnedness.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 16108 (Trin.). Men han seide þat þou art wis of lernyng ȝore.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2016. But for marchaunt men hauyng litell lernyng.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 175. Oxenford … a norishe of learning, and a famous universitie.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 314–5. Learning is but an adiunct to our selfe, And where we are, our Learning likewise is.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 2. The rare learning that he hath attained vnto.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 60. The servil condition into which lerning … was brought.
1676. Lister, in Ray’s Corr. (1848), 125. [Plagiaries] being the bane and pest of learning.
1709–11. Pope, Ess. Crit., 215. A little learning is a dang’rous thing.
a. 1732. Gay, Fables, II. xi. (1738), 100. Learning by study must be won.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), II. 60. That Politianus was a man of learning must be confessed.
1771. Junius Lett., lxi. 319. It is not much to the credit either of their learning or integrity.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxx. III. 136. He had betrayed the ancient seat of freedom and learning to the Gothic invader.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. viii. 167. Learning is the knowledge of that which none but the learned know.
1838. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), I. I. iii. § 47. 168. Ancient learning is to be divided into two great departments.
1887. Lowell, Democr., 122. What we want is not learning, but knowledge.
b. The new learning: the studies, esp. that of the Greek language, introduced into England in the 16th century; also applied to the doctrines of the Reformation.
c. 1530. Latimer, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. II. 119. Ye sayed that it was plaine, that this New lernyng (as ye call it) was not the trowth…. Ye call the Scripture the new Lerninge; which I am sure is eldre than any lerninge, that ye wote to be the old.
c. 1550. Bale, K. Johan (Manly), 1156. I trust ye beleve as Holy Church doth teache ye, And from the new lernyng ye are wyllyng for to fle.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 12. Such as impute this thing to the new learning, and preaching of the Gospell are shamefully deceiued.
1732. Neal, Hist. Purit., I. 28. The King’s displeasure against the … Bishops of the new Learning.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vi. § 4. 305. On the Universities the influence of the New Learning was like a passing from death to life.
4. attrib. and Comb., as learning-place, -seat.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., IV. (Percy Soc.), 20. I went to Doctryne, prayenge her good grace, For to assygne me my fyrst *lernynge place.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. i. 191. The Court’s a learning-place.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 33. That is a storehouse riche, a *learning seat.
