schoolpointn.
/ˈskuːlpɔɪnt/, U.S. /ˈskulˌpɔɪnt/ rare after 18th cent.
An item or matter taught or debated in the schools (school n.1 12b).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > scholasticism > [noun] > point taught or debated
schoolpoint1539
1539 R. Morison Exhort. to styrre all Eng. Men sig. Bv A gaye schole poynte, without any drede of god, to breake that louely bonde.
a1568 R. Ascham Scholemaster (1570) ii. f. 53v I neuer saw yet any Commentarie vpon Aristotles Logicke..that euer I lyked, bicause they be rather spent in declaryng scholepoynt rules, than in gathering fit examples for vse and vtterance.
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. ix. 129 It is also a schoolepoynt of Platoes teaching, That in these high matters of the Godhead,..and such other like, we must giue credite..to the sayings of men of most antiquitie.
1655 W. Gouge & T. Gouge Learned Comm. Hebrewes (v. 12) i. 519 Stuffing their Sermons with..obscure comparisons, and curious School-points.
1698 J. Savage Hist. Poland II. ix. 79 Their principal Erudition consists in being well Read in the School-Points controverted by those two Great Men.
1742 J. Warne Downfal of Arminianism 19 His Majesty's Declaration prohibits principally, unnecessary Disputes about curious, nice, and needless School-Points.
1766 F. Blackburne Confessional vii. 241 Such ambiguities..permitted the Jesuits and Dominicans to abound in their own sense respectively, upon these very school points.
1970 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 10 116 A relatively simple tract like The Mineralls, with its list of ironic schoolpoints,..obviously suggests the basis for a mock debate which satirizes both the Anglican position and a familiar form of argumentation.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1539