Sophomore
SOPHOMORE, the name in American universities ( corresponding to " sophister " at Cambridge, England, and Trinity College, Dublin) for a student who has completed his first year of academic studies. It is a corruption of the earlier " sophimore," due to a supposed derivation from aocjtos, wise, and fttipos, foolish, alluding to the air of wisdom assumed by students after their freshman's year was concluded. The earlier word " sophimore " (cf. " Laws of Yale Coll., 1774," in Hall's College Words) represents " sophismer," a doublet of " sophister," and means an arguer or debater (cf. the Cambridge use of " wrangler "), and is formed from the Greek <ro$Kj/*a, sophism, an ingenious or captious argument.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
