What is the word that describes a lover of general science?
A philomath is a lover of learning and a philonoist is one who seeks knowledge. I am looking for a word that ends in 'phile
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1A science enthusiast? – NVZ Mar 21 '16 at 10:01
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2Are you looking for single word or a phrase? Have you checked a list of -philes? – NVZ Mar 21 '16 at 10:03
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5The traditional answer is a philosopher, which comes from philosophy (philo = love, sophia = wisdom). Support for the link between philosophy and science.The modern understanding has specialised this to an academic context, hence the Ph in Ph.D. I know you wanted the word to end in 'phile, but if you don't mind that (a version of) it is at the front end :) and that the meaning of the word is specialised, I'll post it as an answer. Let me know. – Lawrence Mar 21 '16 at 13:14
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I back Lawrence's answer and further add that at the time of the Enlightenment, the first perhaps 'true' or empirical scientists referred to themselves as Natural Philosophers. – Abernasty Mar 21 '16 at 13:59
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2You might find something useful in this old answer of mine: A word for someone who loves searching, learning new things? or in the older question it was closed as a duplicate of: What term means “one who enjoys learning”?. – Dan Bron Mar 21 '16 at 14:56
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Thanks but none of the above cuts the mustard. In 'Trivial Pursuit' there is a cheese for 'Science and Nature'. General Science, when I took the subject at 'O' level, was literally that and covered Chemistry, Physics, and Biology all of which were independent and detailed subjects. – Malcolm Mar 23 '16 at 22:21
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Gnosophile? (Someone who loves knowledge -> greek gnosis, latin scientia) – skymningen Apr 01 '16 at 09:04
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The word you are looking could be Technophile - one who loves technology. I also was thinking of Didactophile- one who loves learning, but I have only come across this word once in a science fiction book and have not seen it in a dictionary. – Thor Jul 18 '16 at 18:35
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If you're looking to boast about science you could compare the enthusiast to a philocaly (lover of beauty). Not all of these nouns end in 'phil' but they do contain it. Philomath can also be defined specifically as a lover of maths and sciences. You could also try looking for a word that contains the suffix '-mania'.
- zoophilia/philotherianism - zoologist
- thalassophilous - oceanographer
- phytophilous/dendrophilous - botany
- anthomania/florimania - botany
- arithmomania - mathematician
- zoomania - zoologist
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Please don't use the word "zoophilia" if you want to indicate "a lover of zoology." The word is actually used to refer to sexual attraction to animals. – herisson Apr 01 '16 at 11:22
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All the words you listed ending in "-ous" are adjectives, not nouns, and some of them don't have appropriate meanings either. "Phytophilous" is an adjective that's generally used as a synonym for "herbivorous." – herisson Apr 01 '16 at 11:26