释义 |
philistine1 /ˈfɪlɪstʌɪn /nounA person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts: I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings...- Seeing his work here does give some context, even if I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings.
- Creative expression never needs to justify itself to philistines, who from time out of mind have never seen art as "serious."
- When asked how long they spent making something, most artists assume that the questioner is a philistine.
Synonyms lowbrow, anti-intellectual, materialist, bourgeois; boor, ignoramus, lout, oaf, barbarian, primitive, savage, brute, yahoo, vulgarian adjectiveHostile or indifferent to culture and the arts: a philistine government there were displays to inspire even the most philistine of visitors...- We are worried that the building - just before its centenary - will be traded by philistine property speculators.
- "I don't think Joe Public is quite as philistine as is imagined," he murmurs.
- Already this year, the city has revealed itself to be unusually philistine in the fields of architecture and art.
Synonyms crass, tasteless, uncultured, uncultivated, uneducated, untutored, unenlightened, unread, commercial, materialist, bourgeois, unsophisticated, unrefined; boorish, barbarian, barbarous, barbaric, primitive, savage, brutish, loutish, oafish, uncivilized, uncouth, vulgar, coarse, rough Derivativesphilistinism /ˈfɪlɪstɪnɪz(ə)m / noun ...- Their libertarianism was more aesthetic than political, an assertion of personal autonomy against repressive philistinism.
- When cultural studies denigrates literature as elitist, this is hard to distinguish from a long national tradition of bourgeois philistinism.
- She was also accused of philistinism, particularly because of a remark she made at a private dinner party, disloyally leaked by a fellow guest.
OriginEarly 19th century: from Philistine, originally with reference to a confrontation between university students and townspeople in Jena, Germany, in the late 17th century; a sermon on the conflict quoted ‘the Philistines are upon you’ (Judges 16), which led to an association between the townspeople and those hostile to culture. There is no reason to believe that the Philistines were philistines. In biblical times, during the 11th and 12th centuries bc, they were a people who occupied the southern coast of Palestine and who frequently came into conflict with the Israelites. The first book of Samuel tells the story of David and Goliath, a Philistine giant, and Judges relates Delilah's betrayal of Samson to the Philistines. In the late 17th century students in the university town of Jena in Germany, bearing these passages in mind, started using Philister (German for ‘Philistine’) as an insulting name for a townsperson or non-student. By the 1820s English travellers had made this German university slang familiar, and people began to use philistine for ‘an uncultured person’. The word itself goes back to the same root as Palestine.
Philistine2 /ˈfɪlɪstʌɪn /nounA member of a non-Semitic people of ancient southern Palestine, who came into conflict with the Israelites during the 12th and 11th centuries bc.The Canaanites suffered a series of setbacks in the late 2nd millennium bc with attacks from the sea peoples in the north while in the south they were displaced by the Israelites and the Philistines....- Yet in the end, the sculpture works its magic; just as the biblical David defeated the ancient Philistines, his statue conquers the modern American philistines.
- When the Israelites asked for a king to lead them against the Philistines, Samuel warned them that he would become a tyrant.
The Philistines, from whom the country of Palestine took its name, were one of the Sea Peoples who, according to the Bible, came from Crete and settled the southern coastal plain of Canaan in the 12th century bc. OriginOld English: from late Latin Philistinus from Greek Philistinos, from Hebrew pĕlištī: compare with Palestine. See also philistine. |