Lecture 18: Thinking, Teaching, and Learning Words
Didactic (adjective)Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.z Didactic carries with it a connotation of preachy and boring. For
example: “The professor’s didactic lecture style was known for
putting her students to sleep.”z Synonyms for didactic include preachy, donnish, and sermonize.
Pedantic is another synonym, but it has a slightly different
meaning: characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for
book learning and formal rules. In other words, didactic emphasizes
excessive teaching, while pedantic emphasizes excessive attention
to trivia, often to show off.Philistine (noun)A person who is uninterested in intellectual pursuits and indifferent or
hostile to artistic and cultural values.z Philistine is a rich vocabulary word with a wonderful history going
back to biblical times. The original Philistines were the inhabitants
of the southern coast of ancient Palestine. Enemies of the Israelites,
the Philistines were known for being aggressive and crude. Since
the 1600s, the word philistine was used to refer humorously to
one’s enemies.z However, the modern meaning of philistine as a boorish person
seems to have originated in the German town of Jena in 1687.
ż A town-versus-gown confrontation between the people of
Jena and the students at the local university led to several
deaths. In response, a local clergyman delivered a sermon
to the townspeople on the value of education and quoted a
passage from the Book of Judges: “The Philistines be upon
thee, Samson.”