sciolist

Definition

One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.

Etymology

From Late Latin sciolus + -ist. First attested at the beginning of the 17th century.

Example Sentences

• "Men of true ſcience modestly admit the truth on the authority of the divine word; the ſciolist in imitation of the peasant, whoſe obſtinacy is the natural reſult of pride, and ignorance, will not believe if he does not comprehend."
• "Alfred Marshall (1885) The Present Position of Economics: Among the bad results of the narrowness of the work of English economists early in the century perhaps the most unfortunate was the opportunity which it gave to sciolists to quote and misapply economic dogmas."
• "But M. [Édouard] Dujardin is a poet; "vers libres" in the hands of a sciolist are the most intolerably easy and annoying of poetical exercises."

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