sophisticate
Part of speech: verb
adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English sophisticaten (“to mix (something) with a foreign or inferior substance, adulterate”), from Medieval Latin sophisticātus, the perfect passive participle of sophisticāre (“to disguise; to tamper with; to trick using words”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more). Sophisticāre is derived from Latin sophisticus (“pertaining to the ancient Sophists, sophistic; pertaining to sophistry, sophistic, sophistical”) (from Ancient Greek σοφιστικός (sophistikós), from σοφιστής (sophistḗs, “master of a craft; prudent or wise person; philosopher; teacher, tutor; (derogatory) one who profits from false wisdom, cheat, swindler”), from σοφός (sophós, “able, skilful; clever, intelligent, prudent, wise; cunning”), further etymology unknown) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix).
Cognates
* French sophistiquer
* Italian sofisticare
* Spanish sofisticar
Affixes: -ate
Inflected forms:
form: sophisticates
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: sophisticating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: sophisticated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: sophisticated
pos: verb
tags: past
form: more sophisticate
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most sophisticate
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: sophisticates
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To make (something) less innocent or natural; to artificialize.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The party to which Mrs. Berlinton was the loadſtone, was far more attractive to the diſciples of nature, though leſs ſedulouſly ſought by thoſe whom the manners and maxims of the common world had ſophiſticated.
[T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive delicacy. They were not at all sophisticated.
She was no scion of the English houses of Brown, Jones, or Robinson, born and bred in a London back slum, and christened plain Sarah or Mary, to be sophisticated later into Celestine or Mariette.
Psychologists have developed quasi-causal theories to explain the directedness of behaviour, to answer the question ‘Why are certain sorts of reasons operative?’ and these theories may well have insinuated themselves into ordinary language as part of the meaning of “motive”. It might well be, therefore, that people who are slightly sophisticated by psychological theories assume some such necessary connexion [between giving the motive for an action and making any assertions of a causal kind about a man’s emotional state].
gloss: To make (something) more sophisticated (“complex, developed, or refined”); to develop, to refine.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To make (oneself or someone) more sophisticated (“experienced in the ways of the world, that is, cosmopolitan or worldly-wise”); to cosmopolitanize.
pos: verb
tags: also
reflexive
transitive
gloss: To alter and make impure (something) by mixing it with some foreign or inferior substance, especially with an intention to deceive; to adulterate; (generally) to corrupt or deceive (someone, their thinking, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: How be it, it were harde to construe this lecture;
 Sophisticatid craftely is many a confecture; […]
For there are diuers motiues, drawing men to fauour mightily thoſe opinions wherein their perſwaſions are but weakely ſetled: and if the paſſions of the minde be ſtrong, they eaſily ſophiſticate the vnderſtanding, they make it apt to beeleeue vpon very ſclender warrant and to imagine infallible truth where ſcarce any probable ſhew appeareth.
This is my friend, Abel, an honeſt fellow,
 He let me haue good Tobacco, and he do's not
 Sophiſticate it, with Sack-lees, or Oyle, […]
It is the manner of the vvorld, and ſo it is of the Prince of the vvorld, to ſophiſticate ever the beſt things vvith hypocriſie, vvith ſuperſtition, vvith a thouſand deviſes more.
to mingle or sophisticate any Wine here
Yet the rich Cullies may their boaſting ſpare;
 They purchaſe but ſophiſticated VVare.
VVhy have you not been Naught? Have you not been Sophiſticated?
His professional library is neither filled with extravagant and impious fictions, […] nor of books of casuistry, which sophisticate the understanding and defile the heart; […]
Plato sophisticates somewhat the genuine Socrates; but it is very doubtful whether the culture and mental energy of Plato did not give him a more adequate vision of the true Socrates than Xenophon had.
gloss: To change the meaning of (something) in a deceptive or misleading way.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The heavy hand of the high Thunderer
 Shall light on thee; and thou I doubt ſhalt be
 His Furies object, and ſhalt teſtifie
 By thine infamous lifes accurſed ſtate,
 VVhat now thy ſhame-leſs lips ſophiſticate.
His character and doctrines have received still greater injury from those who pretend to be his special disciples, and who have disfigured and sophisticated his actions and precepts from views of personal interest, so as to induce the unthinking part of mankind to throw off the whole system in disgust, and to pass sentence, as an impostor on the most innocent, the most benevolent, the most eloquent and sublime character that has ever been exhibited to man.
gloss: To apply an artificial technique to (something).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: [T]hey ſit in ſome ſun-ſhining place in a chamber or ſome other ſecret roome, where hauing a looking-glaſſe before them they ſophiſticate and dye their haire with the foreſaid drugs, […]
gloss: To practise sophistry (“the (deliberate) making of arguments that seem plausible but are fallacious or misleading”).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The benevolence of her heart taught her, in this inſtance, to ſophiſticate.
Yet [Joseph] Butler professes to stick to plain facts, not to sophisticate, not to refine.
gloss: Synonym of sophisticated (adjective).
pos: adj
gloss: Synonym of sophisticated (adjective).
pos: adj
gloss: Synonym of sophisticated (adjective).
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: So truth, while only one ſupply'd the ſtate,
 Grew ſcarce, and dear, and yet ſophiſticate.
gloss: Synonym of sophisticated (adjective).
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
gloss: A person who is sophisticated (“experienced in the ways of the world, that is, cosmopolitan or worldly-wise”), or who has sophisticated tastes.
pos: noun
examples: […] the soporific details of Porter's socially correct marriage of convenience to wealthy and somewhat enigmatic Linda, "a professional beauty." They evidently shared a taste for high social status and the elegant luxuries, high life and freedoms afforded by wealth. Linda and Cole are portrayed as the ultimate sophisticates but the viewer is never told the cause for their separation or why they married.
Patrick Star: Because classy sophisticates like us should not stain our lips with cursing.
 SpongeBob SquarePants: Yea verily!
Related words: sophism
sophist
sophister
sophistic
sophistical
sophistically
sophistication
sophistress
sophistry
Derived words: desophisticate
outsophisticate
sophisticated
sophisticated falsificationism
sophisticatedly
sophisticatedness
sophisticating
sophisticative
sophisticator
unsophisticate
Translations: