‖ literatus rare
(lɪtəˈreɪtəs)
[L. lit(t)erātus, f. littera letter.]
One of the literati; a man of letters or erudition; a learned man. Cf. literato.
| 1704 Hearne Duct. Hist. (1714) I. 401 It is..not a sufficient Reason to decry it so much as a late Ingenious Literatus has done. 1806 Lamb Lett. viii. To Mr. Rickman 79 You do not happen to have any place at your disposal which would suit a decayed Literatus? 1823 De Quincey Lett. Yng. Man i. Wks. 1890 X. 19 Now we are to consider that our bright ideal of a literatus may chance to be married. 1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 19 May 563/3 He had already made himself the universal literatus. Ibid. 28 July 880/2, I join with a literatus in conversation about the trash we read in childhood. |