sciolism
UK /ˈsaɪ.ə.lɪ.z(ə)m/ · US /ˈsaɪ.əˌlɪ.z(ə)m/ noun
Forms sciolisms
- noun (uncountable) The practice of expressing opinions on something which one knows only superficially or has little real understanding of; also, shallow or superficial knowledge; (countable) an instance of this.
Etymology
From Late Latin sciolus (“sciolist”) + English -ism (suffix forming the names of tendencies of action, behaviour, condition, opinion, or state belonging to classes or groups of persons), based on sciolist. Sciolus is a diminutive of Latin scius (“cognizant, knowing”) + -olus (variant of -ulus (suffix forming diminutives)); while scius is either from sciō (“to be able to; to have practical knowledge, know (how to do something); to understand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect; to split”)), or is a back-formation from nescius (“ignorant, unaware; unknowing”) (from nesciō (“to be ignorant, not know, not understand; to be unable”), from ne- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + sciō).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The knowledge of a sciolist; superficial knowledge.
Etymology [See Sciolist.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sciolism”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details