sophy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: sŏʹfē
ipa: /ˈsɒfi/
enpr: sōʹfē
ipa: /ˈsəʊfi/
enpr: sŏʹfi
enpr: sŏʹfē
ipa: /ˈsɒfi/
enpr: sōʹfē
ipa: /ˈsəʊfi/
Forms: form: sophies
Etymology: A back-formation from sophies, originally plurale tantum, but later attested in singular use (see the 1678 quotation), itself an irregular Anglicisation of the Latin sophī, whence the English sophi; compare sophy.
Senses: examples: text: Yet notwithstanding some men in sundrie nations have mounted above the common rate, and indevored to cherish and advaunce the said Insights, and drawen some small sparkes of truth and wisedome out of them, as out of some little fire raked up under a great heape of ashes; the which they have afterward taught unto others, and for so doing have bene called Sophies and Philosophers, that is to say, Wise men and lovers of wisedome.
ref: 1587: Philippe de Mornay (author), Sir Philip Sidney (translator), and Arthur Golding (translator), A Woorke concerning the trewneſſe of the Christian Religion, preface, page viii (2007 compilation republication)
text: These Sophies finde with the Babe Iesus, onely Marie.
ref: 1596, Henoch Clapham, A Briefe of the Bibles Historie Drawne into English Poesy, volume 2, page 127:
text: The Angels caroll’d loud their song of peace,
The cursed oracles were strucken dumb,
To see their Shepherd, the poor shepherds press,
To see their King, the kingly sophies come,
And them to guide unto his Master’s home,
A star comes dancing up the orient,
That springs for joy over the starry tent.
Where gold to make their prince a crown they all present.
ref: 1610: Giles Fletcher the Younger, Christs Victorie, and Triumph in Heaven, and Earth, over, and after Death, first canto: “Christs Victorie in Heaven”, stanza 82 (1838 republication)
text: You that nothing have
Like Schollars but a Beard and Gowne, for me
May pass for good grand Sophies […]
ref: ante''' 1635: Thomas Randolph, Poems: with The Muses Looking-Glasse; and Amyntas, page 3 (first manuscript dated 1638; 1875 republication)
text: It is no thanks then to us, that very children among us do believe and confess these high mysterious points, whereof Plato, and Aristotle, and all the other grand sophies among them were ignorant; since we owe our whole knowledge herein, not to our own natural sagacity or industry, wherein they were beyond most of us, but to divine and supernatural revelation.
ref: 1639, July 16th: Bishop Robert Sanderson, The Ninth Sermon; delivered in Berwick, July, 16, 1639, § 12 (1841 republication)
text: I, while I wiſht to bee Retir’d,
Into the private room was turn’d;
As if their wiſdoms had conſpir’d
A Salamander ſhould bee burn’d:
And like thoſe Sophies who would drown a Fiſh
ref: 1645: James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, “The Requiem or Libertie of an Impriſoned Royaliſt”, verse 3; in The Great Aſſiſes Holden in Parnaſſus by Apollo and His Aſſeſſovrs, pages 83–84
roman: I am condemn’d to ſuffer what I wiſh.
text: It were to be wisht their Ideas…were undisputable among the Sophies themselves in Physick.
ref: 1654, Richard Whitlock, Ζωοτομία; or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English, page 47:
text: Sir, (quo’ the Voice) y’ are no ſuch Sophy
As you would have the World judge of ye.
ref: 1678: Samuel Butler, Hudibras, third part, first canto, lines 1,423–1,424 (1709 republication)
text: The apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 1. 23. that “Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness.” The grand Sophies of the world esteemed it absurd and unreasonable to believe, that he who was exposed to sufferings, could save others: but those who are called, discover that the doctrine of salvation, by the cross of Christ, which the world counted folly, ver. 24. is the great “wisdom of God,” and most convenient for his end.
ref: 1688: William Bates, The Harmony of the Divine Attributes, chapter V, page 75 (This quotation is taken from the third edition because, although the work was first published in 1674, this extract first appeared in that later edition; meanwhile, the specific page reference and link refer to an 1815 republication.)
glosses: A wise man; a sage or wite.