LITERATURES
Noun
literatures
plural of literature
Anagrams
• literateurs, literatuers
Source: Wiktionary
LITERATURE
Lit"er*a*ture, n. Etym: [F. littérature, L. litteratura, literatura,
learning, grammar, writing, fr.littera, litera, letter. See Letter.]
1. Learning; acquaintance with letters or books.
2. The collective body of literary productions, embracing the entire
results of knowledge and fancy preserved in writing; also, the whole
body of literary productions or writings upon a given subject, or in
reference to a particular science or branch of knowledge, or of a
given country or period; as, the literature of Biblical criticism;
the literature of chemistry.
3. The class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or
expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from
scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge;
belles-lettres.
4. The occupation, profession, or business of doing literary work.
Lamp.
Syn.
– Science; learning; erudition; belles-lettres. See Science.
– Literature, Learning, Erudition. Literature, in its widest sense,
embraces all compositions in writing or print which preserve the
results of observation, thought, or fancy; but those upon the
positive sciences (mathematics, etc.) are usually excluded. It is
often confined, however, to belles-lettres, or works of taste and
sentiment, as poetry, eloquence, history, etc., excluding abstract
discussions and mere erudition. A man of literature (in this
narrowest sense) is one who is versed in belles-lettres; a man of
learning excels in what is taught in the schools, and has a wide
extent of knowledge, especially, in respect to the past; a man of
erudition is one who is skilled in the more recondite branches of
learned inquiry.
The origin of all positive science and philosophy, as well as of all
literature and art, in the forms in which they exist in civilized
Europe, must be traced to the Greeks. Sir G. Lewis.
Learning thy talent is, but mine is sense. Prior.
Some gentlemen, abounding in their university erudition, fill their
sermons with philosophical terms. Swift.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition