Sophomore
Some examples:
| Sophomoric: of or pertaining to, befitting or resembling, characteristic of a sophomore: hence pretentious, bombastic, inflated in style or manner, immature, crude, superficial. |
Probably from sophum a variant of sophism + or (agent suffix, "one who does") frome Old French sophîme, from Latin sophisma "argument" usually "invalid argument, fallacy, false conclusion," from Greek so/fisma "acquired skill, ingenious contrivance," from sofi/zesqai "to practice an art, to play subtle tricks" from sof/o/j "wise, clever, skilled."
| Contrary to popular opinion, the word sophomore is not derived from sophos [sofo/j "wise"] + môros [mw=roj "fool"], but refers to the second year student who has begun to take active part in the dialectic exercises. |
Information from the OED.
Return to WORDS