philomath

noun

Etymology: First indubitably attested ante 1643 (perhaps antedated to 1611); from the Ancient Greek φιλομαθής (philomathḗs, “fond of learning”), from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) + μάθη (máthē, “learning”), from μανθάνω (manthánō, “learn”); compare opsimath, philomathematic, and polymath.

1. A lover of learning; a scholar.

   “For this (in my humble opinion, not very important purpose, and fitter to employ the talent of a philomath than a Newton) he and Leibnitz, much about the same, struck out a fluxional method, which they both took for a demonstration.”

   “Jerman for twenty years past had been the author of a Quaker almanac, and had for about the same time been engaged in a fierce almanac warfare with Jacob Taylor, a philomath and a printer of Friends’ books.”

2. An astrologer or predictor.

   “"The success of an almanac depended upon the appeal of the "philomath"-the resident astrologer who did the writing and predicting."”