Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A pretentious attitude of scholarship; superficial knowledgeability.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Superficial knowledge; unfounded pretense to profound or scientific knowledge.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The knowledge of a sciolist; superficial knowledge.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The quality of showing opinions on at least one subject of which the perpetrator has little or no knowledge, the practice of this, an instance of the practice of this.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun pretentious superficiality of knowledge
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Religion was mostly superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity.
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But I've no doubt whatever, myself, that a great deal of this ancient lore, which we have been accustomed to regard as so much sciolism, not to say pure nonsense, had a germ of truth in it, and that truth I believe we are gradually beginning to re-discover.
Austin and His Friends Frederic H. Balfour
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The marvelous restoration of its prosperity by the genius of Colbert, the ruin caused by the malign sciolism of Law, are familiar to all students of political economy.
Albert Gallatin American Statesmen Series, Vol. XIII John Austin Stevens
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And yet, even worse than this languorous inanition is the active policy of those who despise everything contemporary or native, and substitute sciolism for catholicity, contempt for analysis.
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Religion was mostly superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity.
Baxter's Procrustes Charles Waddell 1904
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Religion was mostly superstition, science for the most part sciolism, popular education merely a means of forcing the stupid and repressing the bright, so that all the youth of the rising generation might conform to the same dull, dead level of democratic mediocrity.
Baxter's Procrustes 1904
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It seemed to stand out in such sharp contrast with our latter-day sciolism and half-believed creeds, and to be flung into higher relief by the dark shadow of John Maltravers's ruined life.
The Lost Stradivarius John Meade Falkner 1895
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Judge of what is true editorial sciolism when I tell you that Riemann -- who evidently believes in a rigid melodic structure -- has inserted an
Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890
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All the peculiarities which ignorance or sciolism used to ridicule or reproach in the
The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) George Saintsbury 1889
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But the way in which these things are merged in and spoilt by a torrent of silliness, sciolism, and sheer nonsense is, even after one has known the book for forty years and more, still astounding.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889
bilby commented on the word sciolism
Che cavolo sarebbe un puchinello?
June 2, 2009