Literary notes about learned (AI summary)
The word "learned" in literature functions both as the past tense of "learn" and as an adjective signifying erudition, and its usage reflects a wide range of contexts. As a verb, it often denotes a process of acquiring practical skills or insights, as seen in characters who gain knowledge through everyday experiences—whether reading and conversing to absorb wisdom [1] or mastering technical tasks like playing the flute [2] or rowing [3]. At the same time, "learned" used as an adjective characterizes individuals who possess deep scholarly expertise, such as the "learned friend" in Dickens' narrative [4] or the revered physicians and philosophers in various texts [5, 6]. Through these dual applications, literature employs "learned" to mark both personal growth and formal intellectual achievement, enriching narratives by contrasting the process of learning with the stature of learned authority.
- Of all this I learned more and more—from their books, from talk, especially from Ellador.
— from Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - He kept this up for three years and so learned the motions for the flute.
— from Korean folk tales : by Pang Im and Yuk Yi - When I was quite a little girl, I learned to row and swim, and during the summer, when I am at Wrentham, Massachusetts, I almost live in my boat.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - My Lord inquired of Mr. Stryver (the prisoner's counsel), whether they were next to try Mr. Carton (name of my learned friend) for treason?
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - The learned among them confess the absurdity of this doctrine, but the practice still continues, in compliance to the vulgar.
— from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift - can we imagine that Homer, or any other learned man, has ever been in want of pleasure and entertainment for his mind?
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero
