• philosophunculist •
Pronunciation: fi-lê:-sah-fêng-kyul-ist • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A minor or insignificant philosopher, a fake philosopher, a philosophical pretender.
Notes: This word comes with a synonym, philosophuncule, to which we may simply add -ist to get today's word. It is so far a lexical orphan, but we can imagine an array of paronyms paralleling that of any noun on -ist: philosophunculistic, philosophunculically, etc.
In Play: This word may be used somewhat positively: "Hadley is a philosophunculist at a small college in the Panhandle," but most often negatively: "Lucinda Head speaks about life with all the sagacity of the philosophunculist she is."
Word History: Today's amusing Good Word is a borrowing from Latin, combined with an English element: Latin philosoph(us) "philosopher" + English -uncul(e), an Anglicized version of Latin -un-culus, which is a diminutive suffix meaning "small, little" + -ist. Philosophus was borrowed from Greek Philosophos "philosopher, sage", a compound comprising philo(s) "loving" + sophos "skilled, clever, wise". The origin of philos is unknown. One eminent etymologist proposes a PIE word bhilo- "harmonious, friendly", listing German billig 'cheap, reasonable (price)" and Dutch billijk "reasonable (price)" as cognates. The same is true of sophos, though no one has any idea where it comes from. (Now a gracious bow to Professor Kyu Ho Youm of the University of Oregon, a contributor of surprisingly Good Words like today's since 2009.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
