sophist - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Learned borrowing from Latin sophista and sophistes, borrowed from Ancient Greek σοφιστής (sophistḗs, “wise one”), from σοφίζομαι (sophízomai, “to become wise”).

sophist (plural sophists)

  1. (historical) Alternative letter-case form of Sophist, certain teachers in Ancient Greece, particularly skilled orators.
  2. (figurative) A teacher who uses plausible but fallacious reasoning.
    Synonym: (obsolete) sophister
  3. (figurative, by extension) One who is captious, fallacious, or deceptive in argument.
    Synonyms: logic chopper, pilpulist, (obsolete) sophister
    • 1699, Richard Bentley, “The Preface”, in A Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris. With an Answer to the Objections of the Honourable Charles Boyle, Esquire, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for Henry Mortlock […], and John Hartley […], →OCLC, page iii:
      [T]hey have acted in this Calumny both the injuſtice of the Tyrant, and the forgery of the Sophiſt.
  4. (dated) Synonym of sophister (“university student who has completed at least one year”).

ancient teacher of rhetoric, etc.