Who is a "Polymath" ?

I stumbled upon an article today titled, "The last days of the Polymath", Intelligent Life Magazine.

A Polymath is a person who knows a lot about a lot. This lengthy article was an amazing insight into the brains of polymaths of all ages:

Carl Djerrasi: Inventor of the Pill who went on to pen a novel

Leonardo da Vinci: Needs no introduction

Thomas Young: the19th century scientist and polymath who partly deciphered the Rosetta Stone

Umberto Eco: Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist.

Brian Eno: English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist and many others.

The author also differentiates between a polymath and a dabbler, by seriousness and depth of the subjects they expertise in. Its indeed a sad fact that its the era of Monomaths,or single-subject experts. The rapidly exploding knowledge in every field has made it very difficult for anybody to keep track of various fields at once. Hence being a polymath is even more challenging than before. A very inspiring read.

I really enjoyed it.