sb. Forms: 4 sofistre, 5 sofister, sof-, sovyster; 4 sophistre, 6 sophystre, -istere, Sc. -istar, 6–7 sophyster, 4– sophister. [a. OF. sophistre, ad. L. sophista SOPHIST.]
† 1. = SOPHIST 1. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 175. Whanne fendes hadde i-hote hym þe victorie of the Pers, his sophister axede [etc.].
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 26. Þer was a yong man þat feste hym at þe scule with Pictagoras, for to be a sophister.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Defluo, Al this came from the fountaines of the sophisters.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., Pref. ¶ ij b. The learned Plutarch … tels of a Sophister that made a long and tedious Oration in praise of Hercules.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XVI. ii. 56. Hippias Elêus that most quicke and eagre Sophister.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, IV. xi. (1715), 295. There is a story of the Sophister Hermocrates relating to this.
1710. Norris, Chr. Prud., ii. 93. At first all Artists, and even Philosophers themselves, were call’d Sophisters.
2. = SOPHIST 3.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 156. Alȝif a sofistre wolde graunte þat þei lyven wiþouten ende.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVIII. 311. A sophistre of sorcerie and pseudopropheta.
c. 1425. St. Mary of Oignies, I. ix. in Anglia, VIII. 143/19. In maner of a sofister amonge sum trewe þat traytour enforced hym to medil false.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. lxxvi. (1869), 45. Thei wolden … skorne me, and holde me for a sophistre.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 475/2. As though a sophyster woulde with a fonde argumente, proue … that two egges wer thre.
1549. Compl. Scot., xx. 183. Thir freuole sophistaris that marthirs and sklandirs the text of aristotel, deseruis punitione.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, 39. The Deuill beyng a subtill Sophister beguiled and blynded our graundmother Eue.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 64. Let no nimble-tunged Sophisters gather a false conclusion from these true premisses.
1653. Baxter, Saints’ Rest, II. x. (1662), 284. The ordinary sort of Christians, that are not able to deal with a Sophister.
1703. D. Phillips, Vind. Verit., iv. 242. The Truth of the Christian Religion may easily be defended against the most Powerful Batteries of the acutest Sophister.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, i. § 8. 34. Let scholastic sophisters intangle themselves in their own cobwebs.
1830. Mackintosh, Progr. Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 70. Not to mention Mandeville, the buffoon and sophister of the alehouse.
1892. A. Birrell, Res Judicatæ, v. 144. The wordy sophister with his oven full of half-baked thoughts.
attrib. 1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xiv. Presently they appointed him a great Sophister-Doctor … who taught him his A B C.
b. In the phr. to play the sophister.
1550. Bale, Apol., 122 b. Ffor now is he dryuen to hys vttermost shyfte … to play Iacke sophystre altogether.
1593. Marlowe, Edw. II., I. iv. [552] (1594), C 3. But nephew, do not play the sophister.
1640. Fuller, Abel Rediv., Life Luther (1867), I. 46. On this point eight days were spent by his playing the sophister.
a. 1659. Bp. Brownrig, 40 Serm. (1661), 232. He will play the Sophister, and endeavour … to beguil us with subtilities.
1725. [see SOPHISTRESS].
3. At Cambridge, a student in his second or third year. (Cf. SOPH 1.) Now Hist.
Also in use at Oxford in the latter part of the 17th cent.; cf. SOPH 1 (quots. 1684 and 1691).
1574. Stokys in Peacock, Stat. Cambr. (1841), App. A. p. xi. A Sophister provided by the Proctour shall knele before the Responsall sett.
1577. Harrison, England, II. iii. 79 b/1. The first degree of all, is that of the generall Sophisters, from whence … they ascende hygher to the estate of Batchelers of arte.
1608. Topsell, Serpents (1658), 778. A number which the meanest Sophister in Cambridge can resolve.
1641. R. Brooke, Eng. Episc., I. vii. 38. They have practised little, but to wrangle down a Sophister, or to delude a Proctor, in the Vniversity.
1675. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 196. They are made like our sophisters’ gown, without a cape.
1688. [see SOPHOMORE 1].
1730. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), III. 74. The Schools appointed for Batchelors and Sophisters.
b. With distinguishing epithet junior or senior.
1685. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), III. 132. This fellow had the impudence before last Act to answer Generalls without a Bachelor or Senior Sophister.
1689. Popple, trans. Locke’s 3rd Let. Toleration, L’s Wks. 1727, II. 396. A Senior Sophister would be laugh’d at for such Logick.
c. Similarly at Harvard and Dartmouth, U.S.A.
1650. in Quincy, Hist. Harvard Univ. (1840), I. 518. In case any of the sophisters … fail in the premises required at their hands.
1708. S. Sewall, Diary, 27 Sept. He was a Senior Sophister.
1766. in B. Peirce, Hist. Harvard (1833), 246. That the Senior Sophisters shall attend the Tutor A on Mondays.
1792. J. Belknap, Hist. New Hampsh., III. 296. The junior sophisters, beside the languages, enter on natural and moral philosophy and composition.
4. At Trinity College, Dublin, a student in his third or fourth year. Also transf. and attrib.
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, cv. 510. The columns of attack will be formed by the senior sophisters of the old guard.
1845. W. B. S. Taylor, Univ. Dublin, iv. 147. The science taught … in the third, or junior sophister year, [is] Astronomy and Physics; in the fourth, or senior sophister year, Ethics. Ibid. Junior sophisters are examined in the science taught from the beginning of the second or senior freshman year.
5. Comb., as sophister-like adv.
1608. Sec. Pt. Def. Minist. Reas. Refusal Sub., 170. [He] changeth the state of the question sophisterlike.
1647. Trapp, Matt. vii. 24. Putting paralogisms…, tricks and fallacies (sophister-like) upon your own souls.
Hence † Sophistered ppl. a., sophisticated. Obs.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 9. It hath bene seene that in stead of a Smaragde some haue had sophistred and counterfayted Glasse.
