learned - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English lerned, lernd, lernyd, equivalent to learn +‎ -ed, which replaced the earlier lered (“taught”), from Old English (ġe)lǣred, past participle of lǣran (“to teach”).[1] Learn formerly had the meaning “to teach”, which is now found only in nonstandard speech, as well as its standard meaning of “to learn”.

Examples (law)
my learned friend, opposing counsel, particularly (UK, Canada) King's Counsel the honourable and learned member, (UK) a fellow Member of Parliament who is a lawyer the learned judge (e.g. the learned trial judge, the learned appeal court justice), the judge of the court below

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

  1. Having much learning, knowledgeable, erudite; highly educated.
    Synonyms: brainy, erudite, knowledgeable, scholarly, educated; see also Thesaurus:learned
    Antonyms: unlearned, ignorant, stupid, thick, uneducated; see also Thesaurus:ignorant
    • 1854, Charles Edward Pollock, Lake v. Plaxton, 156 Eng. Rep. 412 (Exch.) 414; 10 Ex. 199, 200 (Eng.)
      My learned Brother Cresswell directed the jury to make the calculation […]
    • 2011 Feb, Jess Lourey, “A Pyramid Approach to Novel Writing”, in Writer, volume 124, number 2, pages 30–32:
      The book opens with the Time Traveler dining with learned peers in late 1800s England, where he is trying to convince them that he has invented a time machine.
    • 2011 Spring, Jill Lepore, “How Longfellow Woke the Dead”, in American Scholar, volume 80, number 2, pages 33–46:
      HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW used to be both the best-known poet in the English-speaking world and the most beloved, adored by the learned and the lowly ...
  2. (law, formal) A courteous description used in various ways to refer to lawyers or judges.
  3. Scholarly, exhibiting scholarship.
    • 1831 March, anonymous author, “The History of the Doric Race”, in The Edinburgh Review, volume LIII, number CV (book review), page 130:
      But our limits will not permit us to discuss the many important and curious questions respecting the science of government, to which this learned work invites attention.

Past participle of learn.

learned

  1. (Canada, US, New Zealand and dialectal English) simple past and past participle of learn

learned (comparative more learned, superlative most learned)

  1. Derived from experience; acquired by learning.
    Antonym: unlearned
    Everyday behavior is an overlay of learned behavior over instinct.

Translations to be checked

  1. ^ “learned, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.