over-educatedadj.
/ˌəʊvərˈɛdjᵿkeɪtᵻd/, /ˌəʊvərˈɛdʒᵿkeɪtᵻd/, U.S. /ˌoʊvərˈɛdʒəˌkeɪdᵻd/ Having been educated to a higher academic level than is necessary or desirable.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [adjective] > educated or taught > over-educated
over-educated1788
1788 C. Smith Emmeline I. vi. 99 He was not inclined to marry at all; or if he did, it should not be one of those over-educated puppets.
1836 Fraser's Mag. 13 314 Flaunting, fortuneless, over-educated girls.
1899 W. James Talks to Teachers 257 To be imprisoned or shipwrecked or forced into the army would permanently show the good of life to many an over-educated pessimist.
1935 D. L. Sayers Gaudy Night xvii. 364 How many women care..about anybody's intellectual integrity? Only over-educated women like us.
2000 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl.-Bull. (Nexis) 29 Sept. 7 b [He] railed against providing free education for all the returning G.I.s, claiming we would end up with large numbers of overeducated people for whom there were no commensurate jobs.
Derivatives
ˌover-ˈeducatedness n.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [noun] > condition of being educated
well-instructedness1628
over-educatedness1970
1970 Worship Oct. 491 I distinctly recall how self-conscious I felt of my over-educatedness the moment I sat down with him.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1788