Product Code Database
An opsimath is a person who begins, or continues, to Knowledge or Learning late in life. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, page 2010. Oxford University Press, 2002. The word is derived from the Greek language ὀψέ (), meaning 'late', and μανθάνω ( ), meaning 'learn'.Bowler, Peter: The Superior Person's Book of Words, page 101. Bloomsbury, 2002.
Opsimathy was once frowned upon, used as a put-down with implications of laziness, FirstThings.com essay by J. Bottum: "Girard Among the Girardians" regarding "exposure" of opsimathy, implying negativity. (URL accessed April 15, 2006) - "This progress has sometimes exposed him as an opsimath, discovering important theological texts only late in his career." and considered less effective by education than early learning. nifl.gov thread concerning opsimathy. (URL accessed April 15, 2006) The emergence of "opsimath clubs" Simon Fraser News reports an "opsimath club". (URL accessed April 15, 2006) has demonstrated that opsimathy has shed much of this negative connotation. Glasgow Caledonian University speech aggrandizing opsimathy. (URL accessed April 15, 2006)
Notable opsimaths include 19th-century army officer and Oriental studies Sir Henry Rawlinson, Vivian Stanshall's fictitious character Sir Henry Rawlinson, 11h-century Chinese scholar Su Xun, Grandma Moses, Rabbi Akiva (according to the Talmud, he began studying at age 40), and Cato the Elder, who learned Greek language only at the age of 80.
|
|
