Building a Better Vocabulary

ż The university students took this sermon and ran with it, using

the German word for philistine, philister, to refer to those

ignorant townspeople who were opposed to education.

z But it was Matthew Arnold, an English poet and literary critic, who

WRRNWKH¿QDOVWHSWUDQVODWLQJWKH*HUPDQphilister to philistine and

using the word in his book Culture and Anarchy. Since the book’s

publication in 1869, philistine—carrying its current meaning—has

been used widely by English authors.

Erudite (adjective)

Learned or scholarly; characterized by deep and extensive knowledge.

z Erudite comes from the Latin verb erudio, meaning “to educate,

teach, instruct.” This Latin word, in turn, is derived from the Latin

preposition ex (“out of”) and the Latin adjective rudis (“unpolished,

rough, unlearned”). Those who are erudite are literally “brought out

of a rough, raw, unlearned state”—polished through education.

z Synonyms for erudite include lettered, brainy, scholarly, and learned.

Recondite (adjective)

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z Something that perhaps goes beyond erudite or scholarly may

be described as reconditePHDQLQJ³GLI¿FXOWWRXQGHUVWDQG ́)RU

example: “Although the recondite economics paper contained some

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understand it.”

Esoteric (adjective)

Understood by only a select group.