polymath (noun) – a person with extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge across several fields of study [pol-ee-math]
BREAKDOWN: POLY- (more than one) + MATH- (learning)
polymathy is possession of expansive or encyclopedic knowledge
polyhistor is another word for polymath
See also: hyperpolyglot
“You could give Aristotle a tutorial. And you could thrill him to the core of his being. Aristotle was an encyclopedic polymath, an all time intellect. Yet not only can you know more than him about the world. You also can have a deeper understanding of how everything works. Such is the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Planck, Watson, Crick and their colleagues.” —Richard Dawkins
The scholar not only possesses books and learns languages, not only reads both contemporary and ancient authors, but also makes a system out of all his or her knowledge, as Immanuel Kant shows. In other words, erudition can be a path of the polymath.
PS As a principle: No unexamined erudition is worth believing or disbelieving.
Only examined erudition can become knowledge.
Another great word. And the number of self-described polymaths is quite high, I reckon.