sophisticationn.
/səfɪstɪˈkeɪʃən/ 1. figurative.1590 Cobler of Caunterburie 47 He..thought schollers..could deuise many Sophistications to make a man a cuckold.1618 L. Stuckley Humble Petit. 2 This mans whole life was a meere sophistication.
a. The use or employment of sophistry; the process of investing with specious fallacies or of misleading by means of these; falsification.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > misleading argument, sophistry > [noun] > use or practice of
sophisticationc1450
syllogistry1592
pithanology1615
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > [noun] > action or practice of deceiving
swikingc1000
blindfolding?c1225
deceivancec1330
trechettingc1330
jugglingc1380
beguilingc1400
deceivingc1400
fagec1400
delusionc1420
sophisticationc1450
circumvention1534
illudinga1547
cheateryc1555
cheatingc1555
crossing1592
tricking1595
wiling?a1600
circumventing1603
practice1622
cheat1641
deluding1645
underdealing1649
amusement1658
conveyancing1676
bubbling1700
jockeyshipa1763
overreachinga1774
jockeying1779
beguilement1805
gaggery1819
trickstering1821
Jewing1842
wool-pulling1843
rigging1846
hoodwinking1858
old soldierism1866
old soldiering1867
fiddling1884
gold-bricking1901
wangling1911
finagling1926
hyping1968
c1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Augustine (1910) 10 Þe woman..coude not be led oute fro hir trewe beleue with no sophisticacion þat hir son coude make.
c1475 (?c1400) Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) 7 And, sin sophisticacoun falliþ ofte in þis matir, feiþful men askyn..þis witnes.
c1530 T. More Let. Impugnynge J. Fryth in Wks. 835/1 For such kind of sophisticacion in arguing, was the very cauillacion and shift that the wicked Arrians vsed.
1597 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie v. lxxxi. 256 Bending therevnto their whole endeuour without eyther fraud sophistication or guyle.
1678 J. Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 182 The Law of Nature he only restored and rescued from the Sophistications of ill Principles.
1791 A. Radcliffe Romance of Forest I. iii. 89 Her's were the arts of cunning practised upon fear, not those of sophistication upon reason.
1846 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters II. 51 Happily ignorant of, the sophistications of theories, and the proprieties of composition.
1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. i. 29 If you asked her opinion upon any subject you got it, without sophistication.
b. A sophism, a quibble, a fallacious argument.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > misleading argument, sophistry > [noun] > instance of
sophismc1350
fallacea1393
fallation1483
sophisticationa1492
fallax1530
fallacy1532
shift1545
elench1570
collusion1581
goose-trap1610
voidance1621
salvea1628
sophistry1673
wriggle1675
Jesuitism1749
special pleader1867
a1492 W. Caxton tr. Vitas Patrum (1495) ii. f. clxxviv/2 The dyuyne scyence Requyreth not to be fulfylled with sophistycacyons nor proposycyons ornate or polyshed.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Luke v. f. 55 The subtiltees of the Philosophiers sophisticacions.
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 503 b The Argument..is worthely rejected in the Logicians Schoole, and is called a meere Sophistication.
1635 J. Swan Speculum Mundi i. §1. 2 Whose reasons some have called vain sophistications to obscure the truth.
a1676 M. Hale Primitive Originat. Mankind (1677) ii. xii. 244 These Traditions have been admirably dressed by Sophistications and Superadditions.
1783 W. F. Martyn Geogr. Mag. 1 186 Replete with sophistications and interpolations.
1819 L. Hunt Indicator 17 Nov. 46 But they are both as rank sophistications as can be; mere beggings of the question.
1892 W. S. Lilly Great Enigma 141 If we put aside sophisms and sophistications.
2.
a. Disingenuous alteration or perversion of something; conversion into some less genuine form; the alteration of a literary text in the course of copying or printing.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > corruption > [noun]
rusteOE
vice1297
corrumpciona1340
infectiona1398
corruptiona1400
foulinga1400
viciousness1440
inquination1447
turpitude1490
intoxicationa1513
pravitya1513
bracery1540
insincerity1548
corruptness1561
sophistication1564
faultiness1571
depravation1577
base-mindedness1582
mangling1585
reprobacy1591
uninnocence1593
vitiosity1603
turkessing1612
reprobancea1616
debauchedness1618
tortuosity1621
depravedness1623
deboistness1628
debauchness1640
depravity1646
corruptedness1648
moral turpitude1660
unprincipledness1792
demoralization1797
erosion1804
miscreancy1804
trituration1832
unwholesomeness1881
ne'er-do-wellism1891
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > forgery, falsification > [noun]
counterfeiturec1325
adulteration1502
sophistication1564
falsification1565
counterfeisance1590
forgery1594
fausonry1647
alchemisting1649
counterfacture1682
coinage1693
counterfeiting1697
faking1819
counterfeit1843
doctoring1963
society > leisure > the arts > literature > literary and textual criticism > textual criticism > version of text > [noun] > alteration by copyist or printer
sophistication1956
1564 Briefe Exam. *iij b The sophistication of the arguments of that discourse.
1647 N. Ward Simple Cobler Aggawam 58 The sophistication of Religion and Policie in your time.
1672 J. Dryden Def. Epilogue in Conquest Granada 168 That is a Sophistication of Language, not an improvement of it.
1860 N. Hawthorne Marble Faun II. ii. 28 Before the sophistication of the human intellect formed what we now call language.
1892 T. K. Cheyne in Expositor 217 The sophistication of our native good sense.
1956 Stud. in Bibliogr. 8 10 The paucity of ‘em's in the pages set by Compositor B represents the compositor's sophistication of copy.
1963 Notes & Queries Mar. 101/1 We know..that F [of King Lear] is a sophisticated text, and it seems..possible that we have an example of sophistication here.
1981 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 July 793/2 It [sc. the Folio] also makes numerous minor alterations, many of them literary sophistications.
b. Deceptive modification.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > change > [noun] > change within limits, variation, or modification
variation1502
diversification1603
flexion1603
divisiona1616
amendment1653
variating1653
sophistication1664
modulation1674
vacillation1769
modification1775
variorum1776
modifyinga1853
tropicalization1893
mod1943
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > forgery, falsification > [noun] > something false or forged
falsehood1340
counterfeiture1548
forgery1574
bastard1581
man of straw1599
counterfeit1613
imitationa1616
mock1646
pasteboard1648
sophistication1664
imposture1699
fraud1725
sham1728
adulteration1756
falsity1780
duff1781
shim-sham1797
shammy1822
Hodge-razor1843
pinchbeck1847
shice1859
cook-up1865
postiche1876
fakery1880
fake1883
bogosity1893
spuriosity1894
dud1897
cluck1904
rake-up1957
bodgie1988
1664 J. Evelyn tr. R. Fréart Parallel Antient Archit. ii. viii. 108 This Colossean Structure..had need of some Sophistications from the Optiques.
c. The quality or fact of being sophisticated; esp. (a) worldly wisdom or experience; subtlety, discrimination, refinement; (b) knowledge, expertise, in some technical subject.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > bad taste > lack of simplicity > [noun]
unnaturalness1786
sophistication1850
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > wisdom, sagacity > worldly wisdom > [noun]
shrewdnessa1616
common sense1658
savoir vivre1745
savoir faire1788
savoir1823
conventional wisdom1838
sophistication1850
canniness1878
hep1914
hipness1937
move1966
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > branch of knowledge > humanistic studies > [noun] > polite learning, culture
civility1557
furniture1560
politeness1627
ingenuitya1661
culturea1677
improvement1711
cultivation1797
sophistication1850
the mind > attention and judgement > good taste > refinement > [noun]
policya1522
neatness1555
finesse1564
politure1593
polishedness1594
polishment1594
polish1597
polishure1611
refinedness1612
refinement1704
refinery1746
sophistication1915
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > familiarity > [noun] > with a subject, skill
insightc1175
practice1504
sight1530
experiment1575
discourse1589
practic1592
expertness1659
experimentals1748
sophistication1915
1850 L. Hunt Autobiogr. III. xix. 49 A people who..preserve in the very midst of their sophistication a frankness distinct from it.
1884 St. James's Gaz. 9 Sept. 6/2 No more simple and guileless folk can well be found, in these days of sophistication.
1915 New Republic 16 Jan. 27/1 As to semi-education, the assumption is sound enough, and Dr. Burton's chapters on method and structure, on development and climax and ending, are honest first aids to sophistication.
1934 C. Lambert Music Ho! ii. 112 In spite of his dazzling and outward sophistication Stravinsky is essentially primitive and naïve.
1951 R. Firth Elements Social Organization v. 163 When we talk..of primitive Greek art..we are referring..to art that is distinguished primarily by being earlier in time, though it..also bears the character of lack of sophistication.
1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. vii. 145 The reader of the standard linguistic journals is apt to find articles..that demand considerable mathematical sophistication on his part.
1971 J. B. Carroll et al. Word Frequency Bk. p. xxi/1 Complete understanding of the lognormal model requires considerable mathematical sophistication.
1977 R. Williams Marxism & Lit. ii. iv. 99 Mediation, in this range of use, then seems little more than a sophistication of reflection.
d.
(a) The property or condition (of a thing) of being highly developed or complicated; technical refinement.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [noun] > condition of being technologically advanced
sophistication1959
1959 Time 12 Oct. 67/3 In the past the usual comment was that Russian space vehicles are big and brawny because of more powerful launching rockets, but that U.S. space vehicles, small and elegant, made up for the Russians' gross size by their sophistication.
1972 L. Alcock By South Cadbury viii. 195 Elaborate arrangements to maintain the defences and their garrisons demonstrate the administrative sophistication of Late Saxon England.
1972 Pract. Motorist Oct. 162/1 On more modern cars, sophistication is now so far advanced that the linkage would virtually require specialist attention!
(b) concrete. An instance of this; a technically advanced characteristic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [noun] > condition of being technologically advanced > instance of technological advancement
sophistication1973
1973 Nature 9 Nov. 109/2 The range stretches from relatively simple systems such as bacterial flagella and plant viruses..towards bacterial spores and the more complex sophistications of ribosomes, cell walls and mitochondria.
1976 Early Music 4 451/2 Instamatics cost..over £50 with built-in light meter and other sophistications.
3.
a. An adulterated article; a fraudulently mixed form of something.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [noun] > admixture or addition as ingredient > adulteration > that which
sophisticationc1400
adulterant1755
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [noun] > admixture or addition as ingredient > adulteration > result of adulterating
sophisticationc1400
adulteration1609
adulterism1639
c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (Roxb.) vii. 26 Þe Sarezenes makes swilke sophisticaciouns for to dessayfe Cristen men withall.
1620 J. Melton Astrologaster 7 As meere a Mountebanke, as euer sold Sophistications in Italy or the Low-Countries.
1670 J. Pettus Fodinæ Regales 45 They might see and inspect those Impostures and Sophistications so destructive to Commutative Justice.
1886 Daily Tel. 20 Mar. (Cassell) The sophistications of or substitutes for butter sold in the metropolitan and urban markets.
b. A substance used in adulteration.
ΚΠ
c1400 Mandeville's Trav. (Roxb.) vii. 26 Marchandes also and apothecaries puttes þerto oþer sophisticaciouns.
1683 J. Pettus Ess. Metallick Words at Alchimist, in Fleta Minor ii Which really are not pure, but mixt with other sophistications.
1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 172/1 The chief sophistications of ginger powder are sago-meal, ground rice, and turmeric.
4. figurative.1593 G. Harvey New Let. Notable Contents A iij Publique medicines will admit no sophistication.
a. Adulteration (of commodities, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > [noun] > admixture or addition as ingredient > adulteration
cauponation1531
sophistication1541
adulterating1581
bastarding1583
bastardizing1598
sophisticating1611
adultery1616
adulteration1626
adulterism1639
bastardization1650
compassing1669
contagion1695
doctoring1805
1541 T. Elyot Image of Gouernance xxiii. f. 44v To haue alway al necessary drouges..without sophistication or other deceyte.
1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 9 In this kinde as in al others we must take heed of Sophistication.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 86 Nothing is so subject to sophistication as Saffron.
1638 T. Whitaker Tree Humane Life 56 There will be some difficultie in getting true naturall Wine without sophistication.
1707 H. Sloane Voy. Islands I. 223 Drugsters usually adulterate musk with these, which sophistication is known by its small continuance.
1789 India Officer's Pocket-Guide Purch. Drugs (ed. 2) 55 Few drugs are more liable to sophistication than musk.
1823 J. Badcock Domest. Amusem. 98 Tobacco..is rendered still more pungent by the sophistications..of the manufacturers.
1853 A. Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 4) I. 263 The sophistication is easily detected by the microscope.
1871 G. H. Napheys Prevention & Cure Dis. i. ii. 70 Food free from sophistication.
b. Const. of (an article, etc.).
ΚΠ
1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 72v, in Bulwarke of Defence But there is muche craft and sophistication of the Campher.
1669 W. Charleton Mysterie of Vintners in Two Disc. 196 In the close of his chapter touching the Sophistication of wines.
1820 F. Accum Treat. Adulterations of Food (title page) The Fraudulent Sophistications of Bread, Beer,..and other Articles.
1880 Daily Tel. 24 June An unscrupulous dealer whose sophistication of silver plate was more ingenious..than the mere forgery of a hall-mark.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1913; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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