Greek goddess of wisdom, skill in the arts, righteous warfare, etc., from Latin Athena, from Greek Athēnē, name of a common Greek goddess, dating to Minoan times, depicted with a snake and protecting the palace. "Like the goddess itself, the name is pre-Greek" [Beekes]. Identified by the Romans with their Minerva.
c. 1200, "lack of wisdom or knowledge," from Old French ignorance (12c.), from Latin ignorantia "want of knowledge" (see ignorant). Ignoration (1832) has been used in the sense "act of ignoring." The proverb, in the form "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise", is from Gray's "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" (1742) .
c. 1300, conninge, "knowledge, understanding, information, learning," a sense now obsolete, verbal noun from connen, cunnen "to have ability or capacity," from Old English cunnan (see can v.1). By mid-14c. as "ability to understand, intelligence; wisdom, prudence;" sense of "cleverness, shrewdness, practical skill in a secret or crafty manner" is by late 14c.
"wise, judicious, prudent," c. 1300 (late 12c. as a surname), from Old French sage "wise, knowledgeable, learned; shrewd, skillful" (11c.), from Gallo-Roman *sabius, from Vulgar Latin *sapius, from Latin sapere "have a taste, have good taste, be wise" (from PIE root *sap- "to taste;" see sap (n.1)). Originally of persons, but that use is now poetic only or archaic; of advice, etc., "characterized by wisdom" is from 1530s. Related: Sageness.
before vowels ophi-, word-forming element meaning "a snake, serpent," from Greek ophio-, combining form of ophis "serpent, a snake," probably from PIE *egwhi- (source also of Sanskrit ahi-, Avestan aži- "snake," and perhaps the first element of a Germanic word for "lizard," i.e. Old High German egi-dehsa). Hence ophiolatry "serpent-worship" (1862), and the 2c. sect of the Ophitæ, who revered the serpent as the symbol of divine wisdom.
"nonhostile belligerency," used in print October 1945 by George Orwell; popularized in U.S. c. 1947 by U.S. statesman Bernard Baruch (1870-1965). Hence hot war (1947).
More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. [Woody Allen, from "My Speech to the Graduates," 1979]
early 15c., "use of sophistry; fallacious argument intended to mislead; adulteration; an adulterated or adulterating substance," from Medieval Latin sophisticationem (nominative sophisticatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of sophisticare "adulterate, cheat quibble," from Latin sophisticus "of sophists," from Greek sophistikos "of or pertaining to a sophist," from sophistes "a wise man, master, teacher" (see sophist). Greek sophistes came to mean "one who gives intellectual instruction for pay," and at Athens, contrasted with "philosopher," it became a term of contempt.
Meaning "worldly wisdom, refinement, discrimination" is attested from 1850.
"hatred of reason or knowledge," 1819; see miso- + -logy. Related: Misologist; misologue; misologistic. Greek misologia meant "hatred of argument."
Who hates science, but does not love wisdom the lesson on that account, is named a misologist. Misology commonly arises from a want of scientific knowledge, and from a certain sort of vanity therewith conjoined. And sometimes those, who at first cultivated the sciences with great diligence and success, but in the end found no satisfaction in all their knowledge, fall into the fault of misology. [John Richardson, introduction to English translation of Kant's "Knowledge," 1819]
