wiseacre

noun /ˈwaɪzeɪkə(ɹ)/

1. One who feigns knowledge or cleverness; one who is wisecracking; an insolent upstart.

   That other class of wiseacres who twist prophecy in such a manner as to make it promise the destruction and desolation of the same city, use judgement just as bad, since the city is in a very flourishing condition now, unhappily for them.

2. A learned or wise man.

   obsolete

   A fool's paradise is better than a wiseacre's purgatory.

Where it comes from

From Middle Dutch wijssegger (“soothsayer”), from Old High German wīzzago, wīzago (“wise man, prophet, soothsayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wītagō (“wise one; prophet”). Cognate with Old English wītga (“wise man, prophet”). See also German Weissager (“soothsayer, seer”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry wiseacre (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← wirehousewishcast →

Another random word More words starting with W