sophistry

English

WOTD – 6 May 2007

Etymology

From Middle English safistre, soffistre, sofystry, sophestrie, sophestry, sophestrye, sophistre, sophistri, sophistrie, sophistry, sophistrye, sophystrye, from Old French sofisterie, sophistrie and Medieval Latin sophistria, Anglo-Latin sophestria, from Latin sophista, from Ancient Greek σοφιστής (sophistḗs, “wise man”), from σοφίζω (sophízō, “I am wise”), from σοφός (sophós, “wise”), equivalent to sophist +‎ -ry.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɒ.fɪ.stɹi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɑ.fɪ.stɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

sophistry (countable and uncountable, plural sophistries)

1. (uncountable, historical) The actions or arguments of a sophist.
   • 1844, Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments:

     Such conduct is at any rate not sophistical, if Aristotle be right in describing sophistry as the art of making money.

2. (uncountable) Plausible yet fallacious argumentations or reasoning.
3. (countable) An argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so; a sophism.
   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 99:

     And so he reasoned until the first generous impulse to proclaim the truth and relinquish his titles and his estates to their rightful owner was forgotten beneath the mass of sophistries which self-interest had advanced.

Related terms

• Sophia
• sophism
• sophist
• sophistication

Translations

actions of a sophist

• Spanish: sofistería (es) f
• Swedish: sofisteri (sv) n

plausible yet fallacious argumentations or reasoning

• Bulgarian: софистика (bg) f (sofistika)
• German: Wortklauberei (de) f
• Polish: sofistyka f
• Spanish: sofistería (es) f
• Swedish: sofisteri (sv) n, spetsfundighet (sv) c, hårklyveri (sv) n

an argument that seems plausible, but is fallacious or misleading — see also sophism

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詭辯 / 诡辩 (zh) (guǐbiàn)

• German: Haarspalterei (de) f
• Greek: σοφιστεία (el) f (sofisteía), σόφισμα (el) n (sófisma)
• Hindi: हथकंडा (hi) m (hathkaṇḍā), जाल (hi) m (jāl)
• Japanese: 詭弁 (ja) (きべん, kiben)
• Latin: argūtia f pl
• Polish: sofistyka f
• Portuguese: sofisma (pt) m
• Russian: софи́стика (ru) f (sofístika)
• Spanish: argucia (es) f
• Swedish: sofisteri (sv) n, spetsfundighet (sv) c, hårklyveri (sv) n

See also

• demagogy
• rhetoric

Further reading

• “sophistry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• “sophistry”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• “sophistry”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

• “sophistry”, in Collins English Dictionary.

• “sophistry” (US) / “sophistry” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “sophistry” in Moby Thesaurus II, Grady Ward, 1996.