philistine definition | Dictionary.com

phil⋅is⋅tine

[fil-uh-steen, -stahyn, fi-lis-tin, -teen]

–noun

1.	(sometimes initial capital letter) a person who is lacking in or hostile or smugly indifferent to cultural values, intellectual pursuits, aesthetic refinement, etc., or is contentedly commonplace in ideas and tastes.

2.	(initial capital letter) a native or inhabitant of ancient Philistia.

–adjective

3.	(sometimes initial capital letter) lacking in or hostile to culture.

4.	smugly commonplace or conventional.

5.	(initial capital letter) of or belonging to the ancient Philistines.

Origin:
1350–1400; ME < LL Philistīnī (pl.) < LGk Philistînoi < Heb pəlishtīm

Related forms:

phil⋅is⋅tin⋅ism [fil-uh-stee-niz-uh

m, -stahy-, fi-lis-tuh-niz-uh

m, -tee-]

, noun

Synonyms:
1. Babbitt, vulgarian. 3. lowbrow.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Phil·is·tine (fĭl'ĭ-stēn', fĭ-lĭs'tĭn, -tēn')

A member of an Aegean people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century B.C.
1. A smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values.
2. One who lacks knowledge in a specific area.

adj.

Of or relating to ancient Philistia.
often philistine Boorish; barbarous: "our plastic, violent culture, with its philistine tastes and hunger for novelty" (Lloyd Rose).

[From Middle English Philistines, Philistines, from Late Latin Philistīnī, from Greek Philistīnoi, from Hebrew Pəlištîm, from Pəlešet, Philistia.]

Word History: It has never been good to be a Philistine. In the Bible Samson, Saul, and David helped bring the Philistines into prominence because they were such prominent opponents. Though the Philistines have long since disappeared, their name has lived on in the Hebrew Scriptures. The English name for them, Philistines, which goes back through Late Latin and Greek to Hebrew, is first found in Middle English, where Philistiens, the ancestor of our word, is recorded in a work composed before 1325. Beginning in the 17th century philistine was used as a common noun, usually in the plural, to refer to various groups considered the enemy, such as literary critics. In Germany in the same century it is said that in a memorial at Jena for a student killed in a town-gown quarrel, the minister preached a sermon from the text "Philister über dir Simson! [The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!]," the words of Delilah to Samson after she attempted to render him powerless before his Philistine enemies. From this usage it is said that German students came to use Philister, the German equivalent of Philistine, to denote nonstudents and hence uncultured or materialistic people. Both usages were picked up in English in the early 19th century.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Philistine

Phi*lis"tine\, n. [L. Philistinus, Heb. Phlishth[=i], pl. Phlishth[=i]m.]

1. A native or an inhabitant of ancient Philistia, a coast region of southern Palestine.

2. A bailiff. [Cant, Eng.] [Obs.] --Swift.

3. A person deficient in liberal culture and refinement; one without appreciation of the nobler aspirations and sentiments of humanity; one whose scope is limited to selfish and material interests. [Recent] --M. Arnold.

Philistine

Phi*lis"tine\, a. 1. Of or pertaining to the Philistines.

2. Uncultured; commonplace.

Philistine

O.T. people of coastal Palestine, who made war on the Israelites, c.1340, from O.Fr. Philistin, from L.L. Philistinus, from Late Gk. Philistinoi, from Heb. P'lishtim, "people of P'lesheth" ("Philistia"); cf. Akkad. Palastu, Egyptian Palusata; the word probably is the people's name for itself.

philistine

"person deficient in liberal culture," 1827, originally in Carlyle, popularized by him and Matthew Arnold, from Ger. Philister "enemy of God's word," lit. "Philistine," inhabitants of a Biblical land, neighbors (and enemies) of Israel (see Philistine). Popularized in Ger. student slang (supposedly first in Jena, late 17c.) as a contemptuous term for "townies," and hence, by extension, "any uncultured person." Philistine had been used in a humorous fig. sense of "the enemy" in Eng. from c.1600.

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