Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Ultracrepidarian

 Ah, we probably all have an ultracrepidarian (or two) in our lives, and they certainly abound in the world at large.

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This very useful 19th-century word is defined as "a person with opinions on subjects beyond their knowledge" courtesy of The Little Book of Lost Words by Joe Gillard. More background appears in The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth, where he says (in part) that the word ultracrepidarian was "introduced into English by the essayist William Hazlitt, but it goes back to a story about the great ancient Greek painter Apelles." 

That story (I'm summarizing here) involves a cobbler (i.e., one who mends shoes) telling the painter he'd painted the shoe all wrong in a particular painting. When Apelles fixed the offending shoe, the cobbler proceeded to loudly describe what was wrong with the leg. According to the story, Apelles then shouted, "Ne sutor ultra crepidam!" This, according to Forsyth, roughly translates into "the cobbler should go no further than the shoe!" Thus (saith Forsyth) ultracredpidarian literally means beyond-the-shoe.

You can find out more about this wonderful word on the website World Wide Words, which has a nifty entry on ultracrepidarian with many more details on the tale of Apelles and the cobbler.  

And now, you have a great 19th-century word that you can apply to 21st-century charlatans and pretend-pundits... May you use it wisely!

There they go, overstepping their area of expertise yet again.
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay