oversimplifyv.
/ˌəʊvəˈsɪmplᵻfʌɪ/, U.S. /ˌoʊvərˈsɪmpləˌfaɪ/ transitive. To simplify excessively; to simplify (a topic, issue, etc.) so much that a distorted impression of it is given. Also intransitive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > clearness, lucidity > simplifying, popularization > simplify, popularize [verb (transitive)] > excessively
oversimplify1897
1897 Polit. Sci. Q. 12 155 If there is any one thing to criticise, it is the author's tendency to oversimplify the conditions of the problems with which he deals.
1907 Mind 16 309 To reduce hysteria, neurasthenia, etc., merely to symptoms, is to oversimplify the facts.
1924 Federal Reporter 297 852 The matter is not, however, a clear as the foregoing would make it, which I have purposely oversimplified.
1946 Sun (Baltimore) 11 Mar. 10/3 (heading) It is easy to oversimplify about the Russians.
1989 F. Kuppner Ridiculous! Absurd! ix. 158 I am oversimplifying, and yet, at the same time being ridiculously precise.
Derivatives
overˈsimplifier n. a person who oversimplifies.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > clearness, lucidity > simplifying, popularization > [noun] > one who popularizes or simplifies > excessively
oversimplifier1940
1940 Amer. Speech 15 67 The old fallacy of the over~simplifiers, searching for ‘the’ cause where there usually is a complex of causes, has also bedeviled philology.
1965 C. Walsh in J. Gibb Light on C.S. Lewis 114 He berated Lewis as an oversimplifier.
2002 Energy Compass (Nexis) 7 Nov. (Supplement) The negativists and oversimplifiers make headlines.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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