man of letters

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man of letters

n. pl. men of letters

A man who is devoted to literary or scholarly pursuits.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

man′ of let′ters

a man engaged in literary pursuits.

[1635–45]

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Noun

man of letters - a man devoted to literary or scholarly activities

humanist - a classical scholar or student of the liberal arts

Translations

أديب، من أهل الأدب

spisovatelvědec

bogens mandskribent

Schriftsteller

homme de lettres

rithöfundur; bókamaîur; fræîimaîur

letterato

vitenskapsmann

bilim adamı edebiyatçı edip

作家

man

(mӕn) – plural men (men) – noun

1. an adult male human being. Hundreds of men, women and children; a four-man team.

2. human beings taken as a whole; the human race. the development of man.

3. obviously masculine male person. He's independent, tough, strong, brave – a real man!

4. a word sometimes used in speaking informally or giving commands to someone. Get on with your work, man, and stop complaining!

5. an ordinary soldier, who is not an officer. officers and men.

6. a piece used in playing chess or draughts. I took three of his men in one move.

verb – past tense, past participle manned –

to supply with men (especially soldiers). The colonel manned the guns with soldiers from our regiment.

-man (-mən) , (-mӕn) a person (formerly usually used for either sex; currently, often replaced by -person when the person referred to can be of either sex) who performs a particular activity, as in postman, *milkman, *chairman

etc.

ˈmanhood noun

1. (of a male) the state of being adult, physically (and mentally) mature etc. He died before he reached manhood.

2. manly qualities. He took her refusal to marry him as an insult to his manhood.

manˈkind noun

the human race as a whole. He worked for the benefit of all mankind.

ˈmanly adjective

having the qualities thought desirable in a man, ie strength, determination, courage etc. He is strong and manly.

ˈmanliness noun

manned adjective

supplied with men. a manned spacecraft.

ˈman-eating adjective

which will eat people. a man-eating tiger.

ˈman-eater noun

manˈhandle verb

1. to move, carry etc by hand. When the crane broke down, they had to manhandle the crates on to the boat.

2. to treat roughly. You'll break all the china if you manhandle it like that!

ˈmanhole noun

a hole (usually in the middle of a road or pavement) through which someone may go to inspect sewers etc.

ˌman-ˈmade adjective

made, happening or formed by man, not by natural means. a man-made lake.

ˈmanpower noun

the number of people available for employment etc. There's a shortage of manpower in the building industry.

ˈmanservant – plural ˈmenservants – noun

a male servant (especially one employed as a valet). He has only one manservant.

ˈmansize(d) adjective

of a size suitable for a man; large. a mansized breakfast.

ˈmanslaughter noun

the crime of killing someone, without intending to do so. He was found guilty of manslaughter.

ˈmenfolk noun plural

male people, especially male relatives. The wives accompanied their menfolk.

ˈmenswear (ˈmenz-) noun

clothing for men. Do you sell menswear?

as one man

simultaneously; together. They rose as one man to applaud his speech.

the man in the street

the ordinary, typical, average man. The man in the street often has little interest in politics.

man of letters

a writer and/or scholar. Shakespeare was perhaps Britain's greatest man of letters.

man of the world

a sophisticated man who is not likely to be shocked or surprised by most things. You can speak freely – we're all men of the world.

man to man as one man to another; openly or frankly: They talked man to man about their problems; adjective (etc)

a man-to-man discussion.

to a man

every one, without exception. They voted to a man to accept the proposal.

References in classic literature ?

Since, therefore, arms have need of the mind, as much as letters, let us see now which of the two minds, that of the man of letters or that of the warrior, has most to do; and this will be seen by the end and goal that each seeks to attain; for that purpose is the more estimable which has for its aim the nobler object.

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John, the oldest, in Yale, had elected to become a man of letters, and, in the meantime, ran his own automobile with the corresponding standard of living such ownership connoted in the college town of New Haven.

View in context

For it occurred to me that I should find much more truth in the reasonings of each individual with reference to the affairs in which he is personally interested, and the issue of which must presently punish him if he has judged amiss, than in those conducted by a man of letters in his study, regarding speculative matters that are of no practical moment, and followed by no consequences to himself, farther, perhaps, than that they foster his vanity the better the more remote they are from common sense; requiring, as they must in this case, the exercise of greater ingenuity and art to render them probable.

View in context

He was a pure man of letters, untimely born in a world that had no need of letters; but after publishing one volume of brief and exquisite literary appreciations, of which one hundred and twenty copies were sold, thirty given away, and the balance eventually destroyed by the publishers

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It is forty years afterwards that the narrator, now a man of letters in Paris, writes to his old friend, with tidings of Justin and Norine:--

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He took an interest in me, and it is to him that I to-day owe it that I am a veritable man of letters, who knows Latin from the de Officiis of Cicero to the mortuology of the Celestine Fathers, and a barbarian neither in scholastics, nor in politics, nor in rhythmics, that sophism of sophisms.

View in context

You might almost be an Englishman--not one of these men of fashion, of course, but a statesman or a man of letters, some one who had taken hold of the serious side of life."

View in context

He was acknowledged as the greatest man of letters of his day, yet he was still poor.

View in context

Knowledge was power as being be a man of letters was a great honour, he said taking to newsmen during his visit to the 'Book Mela' organized by a pharmaceutical company here at a hotel.

Gilani for promoting book reading culture

The fair will house the complete work of two late Tunisian men of letters, namely Mahmoud Messadi, writer, academic and politician and Mohamed Marzouki, a man of letters and poet known as a specialist in popular literature.

"Tunisian Cultural Days" in Egyptian city of Luxor kick off

man of letters Bill Clinton gets degree from DCU yesterday

Clinton: Peace inspires world

He was, at the time of his death, perhaps the last living author easily described by that old-fashioned honorific, a "man of letters."