autodidact
Jul. 6th, 2011 07:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordautodidact (aw-toh-DEYE-dahkt, aw-toh-deye-DAKT) - n., a self-taught person.
That is, learned without without an instructor, as opposed to just without formal education -- so someone who apprenticed is not an autodidact, at least in that field. As someone teaching himself Japanese, this is naturally an interesting word to me. Borrowed around 1530 from Latin autodidactus, from Greek autodidaktos, self-taught, from autos, self + didaskein, to teach.
---L.
That is, learned without without an instructor, as opposed to just without formal education -- so someone who apprenticed is not an autodidact, at least in that field. As someone teaching himself Japanese, this is naturally an interesting word to me. Borrowed around 1530 from Latin autodidactus, from Greek autodidaktos, self-taught, from autos, self + didaskein, to teach.
---L.
