semicivilized

[sem-ee-siv-uh-lahyzd, sem-ahy-]

adjective

1. half or partly civilized. civilized.

Other Word Forms

• semicivilization noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of semicivilized¹

First recorded in 1830–40; semi- + civilized

Example Sentences

His own defense lawyer described him in court as a “semicivilized savage.”

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The explanation for this was that in the semicivilized medieval times, the knife was placed on the left because most people are right-handed, and this made it more difficult for the diner to stab someone with his or her knife.

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Martin’s bland musings come out in surfer-dude-sloppy speech punctuated by endless “likes” and “you knows” and “I means” that grate on even a semicivilized ear.

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Jackson loved to zing his players, reporters, league officials, opposing teams and opposing fans, delighting at firing up entire arenas on the road, as when he called Sacramento fans semicivilized and “redneck barbarians.”

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Or, if each Protestant knew, that every tenet preached to him from the pulpit is founded upon absolute ignorance of the Almighty's operations, that every doctrine, every prayer, and every ritual, is based upon fantastic, half savage, or semicivilized human ideas, he would recognize at once the total uselessness of the parson.

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