erudition
/ˌɛɹʊˈdɪʃən/
Etymology
First attested in the 15th Century. From Middle French érudition, from Latin eruditio (“an instructing, learning, erudition”), from erudire (“to instruct, educate, cultivate”, literally “free from rudeness”), from e (“out”) + rudis (“rude”). By surface analysis, erudite + -ion.
erudition means profound knowledge acquired from learning and scholarship. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 73 out of 100.
erudition is pronounced /ˌɛɹʊˈdɪʃən/.
Why “erudition” is a great word
ERUDITION — [Noun] Profound knowledge acquired through extensive study and scholarship. From Middle French érudition, from Latin eruditionem ("an instructing, learning"), from erudire ("to instruct, educate"), literally 'to free from rudeness', from e- ("out") + rudis ("rude, unpolished"). Unlike inert knowledge, a static catalogue of facts, or pedantry, its showy and mechanical cousin, erudition is the deep polish of a cultivated intellect. It is the shelf-worn spine of a polyglot dictionary, the silent recognition of a Sapphic fragment in a modern verse, and the patient tracing of a philosophical concept from its presocratic spark to its modern echo—the mind's hard-won light against the enduring dark of not knowing.
noun
- Profound knowledge acquired from learning and scholarship.“Professor Archimedes Q. Porter was their only immediate anxiety. Fully assured in his own mind that his daughter had been picked up by a passing steamer, he gave over the last vestige of apprehension concerning her welfare, and devoted his giant intellect solely to the consideration of those momentous and abstruse scientific problems which he considered the only proper food for thought in one of h”
- The refinement, polish and knowledge that education confers.