Polyhistor is a noun that refers to a person of great or wide learning.

Our word of the day comes from Greek. The prefix P-O-L-Y means ‘much’ or ‘many,’ while histor (HE store) means ‘expert’ or ‘learned.’ Keep in mind that a polyhistor isn’t just a very smart person, but a person very smart on a number of wide-ranging topics.

If I had known Janet was such a polyhistor, I wouldn’t have challenged her to a game of trivia. It’s one thing to get stumped on a particular topic, but getting slammed on several topics can be downright humiliating.