sophister

American  

[sof-uh-ster] / ˈsɒf ə stər /

noun

1. a specious, unsound, or fallacious reasoner.

2. Chiefly British. (especially formerly) a second or third year student at a university.

3. Obsolete. an ancient Greek sophist.

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sophister British  

/ ˈsɒfɪstə /

noun

1. (esp formerly) a second-year undergraduate at certain British universities

2. rare another word for sophist

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Etymology

Origin of sophister

1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French sophistre < Latin sophista. See sophist

Example Sentences

I, who stood by and heard all, saw immediately that one was a crafty old sophister, and the other a true novice.

From Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 1 of 2] With His Most Interesting Essays, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar, Moral, Political, Economical, and Philosophical by Franklin, Benjamin

There the Latinist and sophister and every unlearned writer tries the fitness of his pen, a practice that we have frequently seen injuring the usefulness and value of the most beautiful books.

From The Love of Books The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury by Thomas, Ernest Chester

Well, Domine Cregan, come along with us, and never put faith in a junior sophister.

From Confessions Of Con Cregan An Irish Gil Blas by Lever, Charles James

But pamper not a hasty time, Nor feed with crude imaginings The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings That every sophister can lime.

From The Message by Brock, H. M. (Henry Matthew)

Tennyson's was not an unmitigated optimism, and had no special confidence in "The herd, wild hearts and feeble wings    That every sophister can lime."

From Alfred Tennyson by Lang, Andrew