learning

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English lerning,^[2][3] inherited from Old English leornung (“study, action of acquiring knowledge”),^[4][2][3] formed from Old English leornian + -ung, the verb that became learn.^[3][4] The OED compares Old Saxon lernunga (“teaching”), Old High German lirnunga (“learning, knowledge, study”), also lernunga, and Middle High German lernunge.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of acquiring knowledge or skill, and also a branch of study: early Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care.^[5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the 12th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates the sense of knowledge acquired by systematic study to the mid-14th century,^[4] but the OED, revised in December 2024, now finds it in the early Old English translation of Bede.^[5] A learning could also be a lesson (from about 1390), teaching given to someone (about 1400) or a piece of information received, a use last recorded in 1616.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it first as literature, skill in languages or sciences, and in general scholastic knowledge, and second as skill in anything, good or bad.^[6] The word had a technical life in the 20th century: psychologists used it from 1901 for a mental process that alters behaviour,^[5][7] while from 1950 it was applied to machines and programs that acquire information or adapt to new inputs.^[5] Learning curve is attested by 1907.^[4] In Scots and English dialects, with forms such as larning and leernin, it long meant book knowledge or schooling.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Old English – the action of acquiring knowledge; scholarly knowledge; a branch of study.^[5]
• c. 1390 – a lesson.^[5]
• c. 1400 – the action of teaching.^[5]
• c. 1405 – information received (obsolete by 1616).^[5]
• before 1500 – a doctrine or legal maxim (obsolete by 1794).^[5]
• 1901 – in psychology, a mental process that modifies behaviour.^[5]
• 1907 – learning curve.^[4]
• 1950 – in computing, the process by which a machine acquires information or adapts.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Knowledge gained by study; scholarship or erudition: a woman of great learning.^[7][5][9]
2. The act or process of gaining knowledge or skill: the learning of a new language.^[7][3][5]
3. In psychology, a relatively lasting change in behaviour that results from experience.^[7][3][5]
4. In computing, a process by which a machine or program acquires information or adapts to new inputs without explicit instructions.^[5]
5. A lesson; chiefly in the plural, a fact or insight gained from experience.^[5]
6. The action of teaching; now somewhat rare.^[5]
7. (obsolete, Old English–1613) A branch of study.^[5][9]
8. (obsolete, c. 1405–1616) Information received.^[5][9]

Adjective

1. That learns or is able to learn; also, engaged in a course of study.^[5]

Word family

• learning-disabled
• sleep-learning
• book learning

Related words

• learning curve
• learning disability
• learn
• learned

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from erudition, lore and scholarship as the most general of these terms, covering knowledge gained by systematic study or by trial and error.^[10] The saying "a little learning is a dangerous thing" is a proverb.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House