sophisticated
complex
TRANSLATION
sophisticated = ausgeklügelt, kompliziert, raffiniert, fortgeschritten, technisch ausgefeilt, hoch entwickelt, weltklug, kosmopolitisch, verfeinert, mondän (LEO) --- GOOGLE INDEX sophisticated: approximately 77,000,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
According to an analysis conducted by an Oregon University climatologist, global warming over the past 50 years, coupled with more SOPHISTICATED wine production techniques is responsible for consistently better wines.
(Environment Magazine)
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Once beautiful but sleepy, the little towns of the Sierra foothills are growing more SOPHISTICATED. From charming family-owned wineries to new inns and restaurants, this part of California holds treasures for quiet October weekends.
(Sunset Magazine)
(Environment Magazine)
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Once beautiful but sleepy, the little towns of the Sierra foothills are growing more SOPHISTICATED. From charming family-owned wineries to new inns and restaurants, this part of California holds treasures for quiet October weekends.
(Sunset Magazine)
Did you
know?
sophisticated
adjective
- clever in a complicated way and therefore able to do complicated tasks
- having a good understanding of the way people behave and/or a good knowledge of culture and fashion
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The roots of the word "sophisticated”, which reach far back to the Greek philosophers of the 5th century B.C., are as complex as the meaning of the word itself (as a start, you may note "soph” hidden in the middle of the word philosophy/philosopher).
In the second half of the 5th century B.C., especially in Athens, sophists were a group of thinkers and speakers who employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes, generally to persuade or convince others. Many of them frequently taught their skills for a fee. During this period of time, there existed widespread social and philosophical discussions and arguments in Athens, which often ended up in courts of law. As such, the skills of the sophists were in high demand, enabling them to command extremely high fees.
This practice of taking fees, coupled with the willingness of many sophists to use their rhetorical skills to pursue unjust lawsuits, eventually led to a decline in respect for practitioners of this form of teaching and the ideas and writings associated with it. This eventually led to the creation of the noun sophistry (from the Latin sophisticus and the Greek sophistikos), which means a reasonable, but misleading argument.
Plato is largely responsible for the modern view of the sophist as someone who uses rhetorical trickery and language uncertainties to deceive or to support an irrational thought; in other words, as someone unconcerned with truth and justice. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all challenged the philosophical foundations of sophism.
Sophisticated, in the context of to make less genuine or honest or to corrupt something, was first recorded in English in 1604. Nearly two centuries later, it took on the additional sense of making something artificial or complicated. And in 1850, the meaning of worldliness or urbanity was first recorded.
(sources: Wikipedia, The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, The Online Etymology Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.)
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SYNONYMS
as in cosmopolitan:
citified, cool, couth, cultivated, cultured, cynical, disenchanted, disillusioned, experienced, hip, in, knowing, laid back, mature, mod, practical, practiced, really into, refined, schooled, seasoned, sharp, sceptical, smooth, stagy, streetwise, studied, suave, svelte, switched on, uptown, urbane, well-bred, wise to, with it, worldly, worldly-wise
as in complex:
advanced, complicated, delicate, elaborate, highly-developed, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, modern, multi-faceted, refined, subtle
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
ANTONYMS
backward, crude, naive, unsophisticated
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"The new office building not only has a sophisticated design, the technology that runs everything from the elevators to the climate control system is also very sophisticated.”
adjective
- clever in a complicated way and therefore able to do complicated tasks
- having a good understanding of the way people behave and/or a good knowledge of culture and fashion
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
The roots of the word "sophisticated”, which reach far back to the Greek philosophers of the 5th century B.C., are as complex as the meaning of the word itself (as a start, you may note "soph” hidden in the middle of the word philosophy/philosopher).
In the second half of the 5th century B.C., especially in Athens, sophists were a group of thinkers and speakers who employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes, generally to persuade or convince others. Many of them frequently taught their skills for a fee. During this period of time, there existed widespread social and philosophical discussions and arguments in Athens, which often ended up in courts of law. As such, the skills of the sophists were in high demand, enabling them to command extremely high fees.
This practice of taking fees, coupled with the willingness of many sophists to use their rhetorical skills to pursue unjust lawsuits, eventually led to a decline in respect for practitioners of this form of teaching and the ideas and writings associated with it. This eventually led to the creation of the noun sophistry (from the Latin sophisticus and the Greek sophistikos), which means a reasonable, but misleading argument.
Plato is largely responsible for the modern view of the sophist as someone who uses rhetorical trickery and language uncertainties to deceive or to support an irrational thought; in other words, as someone unconcerned with truth and justice. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all challenged the philosophical foundations of sophism.
Sophisticated, in the context of to make less genuine or honest or to corrupt something, was first recorded in English in 1604. Nearly two centuries later, it took on the additional sense of making something artificial or complicated. And in 1850, the meaning of worldliness or urbanity was first recorded.
(sources: Wikipedia, The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, The Online Etymology Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.)
---
SYNONYMS
as in cosmopolitan:
citified, cool, couth, cultivated, cultured, cynical, disenchanted, disillusioned, experienced, hip, in, knowing, laid back, mature, mod, practical, practiced, really into, refined, schooled, seasoned, sharp, sceptical, smooth, stagy, streetwise, studied, suave, svelte, switched on, uptown, urbane, well-bred, wise to, with it, worldly, worldly-wise
as in complex:
advanced, complicated, delicate, elaborate, highly-developed, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, modern, multi-faceted, refined, subtle
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
ANTONYMS
backward, crude, naive, unsophisticated
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"The new office building not only has a sophisticated design, the technology that runs everything from the elevators to the climate control system is also very sophisticated.”
