sciolism
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sciolism
First recorded in 1750–60; from Late Latin sciol(us) “one who knows little,” (diminutive of scius “knowing”; see conscious, -ole 1) + -ism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Of all these cobwebs spun by the spiders of sciolism, the Euhemeristic or Spencerian view—that Gladstone is an historical personage—has attracted most attention.
From In the Wrong Paradise by Andrew Lang
This is a point on which the ancients, I am aware, in their light-hearted sciolism laid great stress.
From A Modern Symposium by G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes) Dickinson
And such readers will become in all probability more numerous, in proportion as a still greater diffusion of literature shall produce an increase of sciolists, and sciolism bring with it petulance and presumption.
From Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Meanwhile, the genius of the Florentine people was saving Italian literature from the extreme consequences to which caricatures of this kind, inspired by humanistic pedantry and sciolism, exposed it.
From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by John Addington Symonds
I am sick of sciolism, especially that phase where it crops out in shallow criticism, and every day something recalls the reprimand of Apelles to the shoemaker.
From St. Elmo by Augusta J. (Augusta Jane) Evans
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
