Autodidact

I stumbled into this word while reading during my trip to Illinois this past week. It was in reference to Thomas Jefferson. I read it aloud to my sister, and remembered that I had heard the word before and therefore could pronounce it correctly, but I had no idea what it meant. We laughed that I was trying to comprehend a book above my reading level, and then dismissed it.

Then I came across it again this morning in reference to E. M. Forester. Grrr. How can I know this word and feel that it is so familiar, but have no idea what it means. After sitting and stewing for a while I decided to just get over it and I broke down and pulled out my trusty (dusty) dictionary to look it up.

Autodidact|ˌôtōˈdīˌdakt| (noun) = a self taught person

Ha! I guess I just educated myself in vocabulary. I am officially an autodidact.