"Sophist" is a word in ENGLISH
Hence, an impostor in argument; a captious or fallacious
reasoner.
One of a class of men who taught eloquence, philosophy,
and politics in ancient Greece; especially, one of those who, by their
fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth,
weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general
hatred and contempt.
The rain spun in the yellow arc lights over the café parking lot. It was empty inside, except for a fat Negro woman whom I could see through the service window in the kitchen, and a pretty, redheaded waitress in her early twenties, dressed in a pink uniform with her hair tied up on her freckled neck. She was obviously tired, but she was polite and smiled at me when she took my order, and I felt a sense of guilt, almost shame, at my susceptibility and easy fondness for a young woman's smile. Because if you're forty-nine and unmarried or a widower or if you've simply chosen to live alone, you're easily flattered by a young woman's seeming attention to you, and you forget that it is often simply a deference to your age.
WORD SUGGESTIONS
How did Gertie Gorilla win the beauty contest?She was the beast of the show!
The doctrine or mode of reasoning practiced by a sophist; hence, any fallacy designed to deceive.
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