sofista

Forms

sofista m or f by sense (plural sofistas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sophista, which is from Ancient Greek σοφιστής (sophistḗs).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas treats it in the article on sofisma, with the other learned words of this Greek family.^[2][3] Nascentes notes that the word entered the Romance languages by the learned route, through Latin.^[5]

The Greek noun is formed from σοφίζω (sophízō, “to become wise”), from σοφός (sophós, “wise”).^[1] The same Latin word gives Portuguese sofista, Galician sofista, Catalan sofista, Occitan sofista and Italian sofista, beside French sophiste.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest certain records are in Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch's Parallel Lives (1379–1384), where men who turned wisdom into words and study fueron clamados sofistas “were called sophists”, and a visitor to Rhodes faulo con los sofistas “spoke with the sophists”.^[7] An earlier hit in the CDH, Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1280), has Sophista in a list of authors beside Euripides and Protagoras.^[7] Corominas's first record is the Corbacho of 1438.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the word first meant a master of a craft, an expert, and was applied to diviners, poets and musicians; it then meant a wise or prudent man, so that the Seven Sages were called sophists, and it was often used with a slightly ironic sense.^[8] Nascentes explains the later meaning “impostor” by the sophists' skill in arguing both sides of a question.^[5]

In Spanish the pejorative sense appears by 1490, when Alfonso de Palencia writes that defending what is false with deceitful conclusions belongs to the sophists.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 says the name was at first honourable, meaning a wise man, but was later given to arrogant talkers who seemed to know much and were mere charlatans, so that the truly wise came to be called philosophers.^[9] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defines it as the name once given to teachers of philosophy and, by extension, as one who argues for a merely apparent proposition out of vanity or obstinacy.^[10] Terreros observes that in common speech it meant an arguer who uses sophisms and tries to deceive with false arguments.^[11]

The Academy's dictionary of 1843 gave the noun for an ancient teacher of philosophy or rhetoric, an old sense “wise man, philosopher”, and the adjective for one who uses sophisms.^[12] Today the adjective and its use as a noun come first, often in a disparaging sense, and the historical sense is the Greek master of rhetoric of the 5th century BC.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1379–1384 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's translation of Plutarch uses sofistas for the Greek teachers.^[7]
• 1438 – the Corbacho, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia uses the word for those who defend falsehood with deceitful reasoning.^[2]
• 1599 – the derivative sofistería appears in Guzmán de Alfarache.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains how an honourable name became a term of reproach.^[9]
• 1711 – the first record from the Americas, in Guatemala: sofistas litigiosos.^[14]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters it with the extended sense “quibbler”.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary records the adjective “who uses sophisms”.^[12]
• 1917 – Alemany gives the etymology from Latin and Greek.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Using sophisms (sofismas) or specious arguments; often disparaging; also used as a noun: No te fíes de él, es un sofista.^[4][13]

Noun

1. (history) A sophist: in 5th-century BC Greece, a teacher of rhetoric who taught the analysis of the senses of words as a means of education and of influence over citizens.^[4][16][1]

Word family

• sofistería

Related words

• sofisma
• sofístico
• sofisticar
• filósofo
• Latin sophista

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 291
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sofisma
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sofista
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. sofista
6. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 722
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sofista
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1304
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 155
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 514
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 673
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sofista
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sofista
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1527
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sofista