sophisticated [E17th] If you describe someone as sophisticated you probably mean that they are worldly-wise, discriminating and cultured—all positive traits. But when the word was first used it had a much more negative meaning, ‘corrupted’ or ‘adulterated’, especially referring to food and drink. Over time it shifted in sense and acquired associations of a lack of naturalness or simplicity. This in turn led to the modern sense. The root was Greek sophos, ‘wise’. Sophist [M16th], originally a term for a paid teacher of philosophy in the Classical world, but which came to mean someone who reasons with clever but false arguments of sophistry [ME] comes from the same root. So, too, does the US sophomore [L17th] for a second-year student, which comes from obsolete sophumer ‘arguer’.