Both Uses of
literate
in
War and Peace
- Some of the stewards (there were semiliterate foremen among them) listened with alarm, supposing these words to mean that the young count was displeased with their management and embezzlement of money, some after their first fright were amused by Pierre's lisp and the new words they had not heard before, others simply enjoyed hearing how the master talked, while the cleverest among them, including the chief steward, understood from this speech how they could best handle the master for their own ends.†
Chpt 5semiliterate = partially able to read and writestandard prefix: The prefix "semi-" in semiliterate means half or partially. This is the same pattern you see in words like semicircle, semisweet, and semiautomatic.
- There were very few resident landlords in the neighborhood and also very few domestic or literate serfs, and in the lives of the peasantry of those parts the mysterious undercurrents in the life of the Russian people, the causes and meaning of which are so baffling to contemporaries, were more clearly and strongly noticeable than among others.†
Chpt 10 *literate = able to read and write
Definitions:
-
(1)
(literate) able to read and write
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, literate can refer to knowledge in a particular subject area as in: "She is computer literate."
Occasionally literate is also used to indicate a knowledge of literature or writing as in: "I don't remember the name of Odysseus' wife. Ask Susan. She's one of the more literate people I know." or "If you want a highly literate record of the minutes, ask Susan to record them."