Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who converses learnedly at dinner: in allusion to the title (see the etymology) of a celebrated work of Athenæus, in which a number of learned men are represented as at dinner discoursing on literature and matters of the table.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of an ancient sect of philosophers, who cultivated learned conversation at meals.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun one of an ancient group of philosophers, who engaged in learned dialogue at meals
  • noun a person skilled at informal, across-the-table small talk

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun someone skilled at informal chitchat

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Greek [deipnosofisth's] [deipnon] a meal + [sofisth's] a wise man, sophist

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Examples

  • The word deipnosophist is derived from Greek elements meaning 'meal' and 'wise man,' so we can assume it means someone wise in mealtime conversation...it could also just mean a gastronome, but if you spout it at a dinner party, I guarantee no one will ask you to which meaning you refer... everyone else will silently be trying to figure out if you've insulted them or not.

    Archive 2007-01-01 a. fortis 2007

  • The word deipnosophist is derived from Greek elements meaning 'meal' and 'wise man,' so we can assume it means someone wise in mealtime conversation...it could also just mean a gastronome, but if you spout it at a dinner party, I guarantee no one will ask you to which meaning you refer... everyone else will silently be trying to figure out if you've insulted them or not.

    The WritingYA Weblog: Middle Of the Week, Huzzah! tanita davis 2007

  • I think that deipnosophist is a good description of what Corey the Welldigger was not when Hannity called him about his letter to Nobama.

    Latest Articles 2008

  • The One reads the teleprompter well, but a deipnosophist he ain't.

    Latest Articles 2008

  • An Italian deipnosophist is unlikely to get a nose-a-fist ..

    Latest Articles 2008

  • A typical example occurs (as one might expect) at the entry for deipnosophist where a line that normally contains about 50 characters (plus spaces), has been printed with only 34 characters (plus spaces), mainly, apparently, because no one knew where to hyphen Deipnosophistai, the first word on the next line.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 4 1989

  • -- deipnosophist, which means someone skilled at across the table chitchat.

    CNN Transcript May 28, 2003 2003

Comments

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  • From Greek deipnon (lunch) + sophistes (a wise man)

    June 12, 2009