Fwd: "sciolist, n." - Word of the Day from the OED

[Dave Monroe]

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Date: Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 7:30 PM
Subject: "sciolist, n." - Word of the Day from the OED
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Your word for today is: sciolist, n.

sciolist, n.
[‘ A person whose knowledge is only superficial, esp. one who makes
much of it; a pretender to learning.’]
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈsʌɪəlɪst/,  U.S. /ˈsaɪələst/
Etymology: <  post-classical Latin sciolus (see sciolous adj.) + -ist
suffix. Compare sciolus n.
 depreciative.
  A person whose knowledge is only superficial, esp. one who makes
much of it; a pretender to learning.
1612  A. Hopton Concordancy of Yeares sig. A8v_ (note) , All whose
workes fairly written..were, by religious pretending Sciolists, damn'd
as diuelish.
1656  T. Blount Glossographia To Rdr. sig. A4, Every..homebred
Sciolist being at liberty..to coyn and innovate new Words.
1705  W. Lewis tr. E. Herbert Antient Relig. Gentiles x. 131 But the
inquisitive Sciolist..will endeavour to find out second Causes for
those things which proceed directly and solely from the most wise
Counsel of God.
1778  V. Knox Ess. I. xvi. 107 Contemptible sciolists, who called
themselves theatrical critics.
1817  S. T. Coleridge Biographia Literaria I. iii. 58 In proportion as
a still greater diffusion of literature shall produce an increase of
sciolists.
1880  A. C. Swinburne Study of Shakespeare 18 The last resource of an
empiric, the last refuge of a sciolist.
1939 Sewanee Rev. 47 112 Non-Shakespearean sciolists put the burden of
proof that William Shakespeare wrote the plays on the shoulders of
acknowledged Shakespeareans.
1973 Financial Times 5 June 20/5 Any identification of the Smithian
system with this point of view is a sure sign of the sciolist or the
charlatan.
1991  I. Sinclair Downriver(1995) iv. 93 A sciolist, call him Sonny
Jaques, with a gold stud earring, and a doctorate in Romance
Languages.
Derivatives

 scioˈlistic adj. that is a sciolist; characteristic of a sciolist.
1830  S. Wells Hist. Drainage Great Level of Fens I. viii. 147 Those
navigation laws, which more degenerate legislators and sciolistic
quacks have in modern times dared to abrogate.
1870  J. R. Lowell Among my Bks. 2nd Ser. 298 Sciolistic theorizing
and dogmatism.
2004  W. F. Buckley Miles Gone By ii. 107 Another reason for giving up
Firing Line is the progressive exasperation one feels over sciolistic
preparation and exegesis.

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/172745

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