sophister

Etymology

From Middle English shophister, sofister, sofistre, sophister, sophistre, sovyster, from Anglo-Norman sofistre, a variant of Old French sofiste, sophiste.

noun

1. A sophist.
   […] I wil not be afraid to saie vnto a Pope or Cardinall in this plight, be of good comfort, we haue to doe with a mercifull God; rather to make the best of a little which we hold well, and not with a captious sophister, which gathereth the worst out of everie thing, wherein wee erre. 1612, Richard Hooker, A Learned Discourse of Iustification, Workes, and How the Foundation of Faith is Overthrowne, Oxford, page 62
   1783, David Hume (ascribed), Essays on Suicide, and the Immortality of the Soul, London: M. Smith, Letter 114, p. 74, The same sophisters make it a question whether life can ever be an evil? but when we consider the multitude of errors, torments, and vices, with which it abounds, one would rather be inclined to doubt whether it can ever be a blessing.
   Burke said the age of the economist was also the age of the sophister. 1973, William D. Grampp, “Classical Economics and Its Moral Critics”, in History of Political Economy, volume 5, pages 359–374
2. (dated, UK, US, universities) A student who is advanced beyond the first year of their residence.
   In the older American colleges, the junior and senior classes were originally called Junior Sophisters and Senior Sophisters. The term is also used at Oxford and Dublin. 1851, Benjamin Homer Hall, College Words and Customs, Cambridge, Mass.: John Bartlett, page 287