Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sophist |
SophistNoun1. Someone whose reasoning is subtle and often specious. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sophist" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Sophist \Soph"ist\, noun. [French expression sophiste, from Latin expression sophistes, from the Greek expression. See Sophism.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In Greek : sophistèsThe meaning of the word sophist has changed greatly over time. Initially, a sophist was someone who gave sophia to his disciples, i. e. wisdom made from knowledge. It was a highly complimentary term, applied to early philosophers such as the Seven Wise Men of Greece.
Eventually, it came to refer to a school of philosophy whose practitioners taught the arts of debate and rhetoric. Protagoras is generally regarded as the first sophist. Other leading 5th-century sophists included Gorgias and Prodicus. Socrates was perhaps the first philosopher to significantly challenge the Sophists in his ideas.
Due to the importance of these skills in the litigious social life of Athens, teachers of such skills often commanded very high fees. The practice of taking fees, coupled with the willingness of many practitioners to use their rhetorical skills to pursue unjust lawsuits, eventually led to a decline in respect for this school of thought.
By the time of Plato and Aristotle, "sophist" had taken on negative connotations, usually referring to someone who used rhetorical sleight-of-hand and ambiguities of language in order to deceive, or to support fallacious reasoning. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all challenged the philosophical foundations of Sophism. Eventually, the school was accused of immorality by the state.
In the Roman Empire, sophists were just professors of rhetoric. For instance, Libanius, Himerius, Aelius Aristides and Fronto were considered sophists in this sense.
Echoes of Sophism survives today in the language theory of Jacques Derrida and other postmodern rhetoricians who teach that language ought to be deconstructed in order to unpack the intentions of "sophisticated" communicators.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sophist."
Synonym: SophistSynonym: casuist (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Deceiver | Noun: deceiver; (deceive; ); dissembler, hypocrite; sophist, Pharisee, Jesuit, Mawworm, Pecksniff, Joseph Surface, Tartufe, Janus; serpent, snake in the grass, Judas, wolf in sheep's clothing; jilt; shuffler, stool pigeon. |
Scholar | Noun: scholar, connoisseur, savant, pundit, schoolman, professor, graduate, wrangler; academician, academist; master of arts, doctor, gownsman; philosopher, master of math; scientist, clerk; sophist, sophister; linguist; glossolinguist, philologist; philologer; lexicographer, glossographer; grammarian; litterateur, literati, dilettanti, illuminati, cogniscenti; fellow, Hebraist, lexicologist, mullah, munshi, Sanskritish; sinologist, sinologue; Mezzofanti, admirable Crichton, Mecaenas. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sophist |
| English words defined with "sophist": Sophister. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sophist": Abderitan ♦ Sophist, Sophistry, Sophism, Sophisticator. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "sophist": sophism. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Sophist" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. German (sophist). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Matthew Arnold | Be neither saint nor sophist led, but be a man. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Sophist" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sophist" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 7 | 133,076 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sophist | 29 |
o sophist twist | 4 |
socrates sophist | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sophist"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | sofist (sophistic). (various references) | |
Arabic | المفكر (thinker, wit), السوفسطائي. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | софист. (various references) | |
Czech | sofista. (various references) | |
Farsi | مغالطه کن , سفسطه باز, سوفسطاءی (Sceptic, Sophisticated), زبان باز. (various references) | |
French | sophiste (sophistic). (various references) | |
German | Sophistin, sophist, rabulist (quibbler). (various references) | |
Greek | σοφιστήσ (casuist, quibbler). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szofista (sophistic, sophistical). (various references) | |
Italian | sofista. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 詭弁家 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きべ"か. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ophistsay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | sofista (casuist, caviller, sophistic). (various references) | |
Romanian | sofist (quibbler). (various references) | |
Russian | софист. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sofista. (various references) | |
Spanish | sofista (quibbler). (various references) | |
Swedish | sofist. (various references) | |
Thai | นักปราชญ์ (savant). (various references) | |
Turkish | sofist, safsatacı (casuist, pettifogger, pettifogging, quibbler), bilgici. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | софіст (quibbler). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | sofistice. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sophist": sophistic, sophistical, sophistically, sophisticate, sophisticated, sophisticatedly, sophisticates, sophisticating, sophistication, sophistications, sophistries, sophistry, sophists. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "sophist": gymnosophist, theosophist. (additional references) | |
Words containing "sophist": gymnosophists, oversophisticated, pseudosophisticated, pseudosophistication, pseudosophistications, supersophisticated, theosophists, ultrasophisticated, unsophisticated, unsophistication, unsophistications. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sophist" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Asophus, ophis, sikhist, slopist, sofit, sophiste, sophit, sophy, Soppitt, sulphite. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "sophist" (pronounced 'Soph"ist'): Adeptist, Alarmist, Alcoranist, Alkoranist, Antitheist, Artist, Balloonist, Bassoonist, Boodhist, Bronzist, Bullist, Canoeist, Cartoonist, Chartist, Chemist, Concordist, Conformist, Copist, Deist, Feudist, flutist, Glossist, harpist, Legerdemainist, lutist, Lyrist, machinist, Magazinist, Maurist, Modist, Monist, Nonconformist, Occultist, Odist, Opportunist, Panslavist, Paulist, Pianist, Psalmist, Purist, Red-tapist, reformist, reservist, Rhymist, Rodomontadist, Romist, Routinist, Schemist, Sectist, Selfist. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "h-i-o-p-s-s-t" | |
-1 letter: hoists, posits, ptosis. | |
-2 letters: hists, hoist, hosts, phots, pisos, piths, posit, posts, ships, shist, shops, shots, sophs, soths, spits, spots, stops, tophi, tophs, topis. | |
-3 letters: hips, hiss, hist, hits, hops, host, hots, opts, phis, phot, pish, piso, piss, pith, pits, pois, posh, post, pots, psis, psst, ship, shop, shot, sips, sith, sits, soph. | |
| Words containing the letters "h-i-o-p-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: sophists. | |
+2 letters: aphorists, helistops, highspots, hospitals, isophotes, isopleths, postiches, prothesis, shoplifts, sophistic, sophistry, storeship, townships. | |
+3 letters: apotheosis, chopsticks, courtships, hemoptysis, hoopskirts, hypnotisms, hypnotists, hypostasis, hypothesis, nightspots, pastorship, phosphites, photolysis, pistachios, prosthesis, psychotics, rhapsodist, sociopaths, spotlights, stoplights, storeships, symphonist, troopships, tutorships, whipstocks. | |
+4 letters: apostleship, authorships, clothespins, doctorships, dystrophies, editorships, epistrophes, factorships, hospitalise, hotpressing, imposthumes, mentorships, nightscopes, orthoepists, pastorships, phlogistons, photoresist, pilothouses, polyhistors, polytheisms, polytheists, priesthoods, prosthetics, prosthetist, psilophytes, rectorships, rhapsodists, saxophonist, scyphistoma, senatorship, shoplifters, sophistical, sophistries, spirochetes, splotchiest, stephanotis, symphonists, theosophies, theosophist, topstitches. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Familiar 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Translations: Ancient 10. Derivations 11. Rhymes 12. Anagrams | 13. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
