Sophister

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person adept at crafting intricate but fallacious arguments
2. Someone who employs subtle reasoning techniques that can mislead and confuse others
3. A person who excels in creating arguments that seem convincing but are logically flawed

Etymology: Sophister entered English in Middle English as "shophister," "sofister," and several other spellings, borrowed through Anglo-Norman "sofistre," a variant of Old French "sofiste" and "sophiste." Its ultimate source is the Greek "sophistes," a person skilled in wisdom or learning, which is the root of the word "sophist." The English form is a sophist with the agent suffix "-er" added, so it names a person who practises the sophist's craft of argument. The sense has narrowed over time. In the Middle Ages the word could simply mean a learned or clever person, but the older sophists of ancient Greece had a reputation for arguing cleverly for pay, and English kept that edge. A sophister came to mean someone who uses ingenious reasoning to win a point rather than to find the truth, which is why the word still carries a whiff of trickery.

Synonyms: sophist, quibbler, rascal, clever deceiver, sharper