philosopher

What it means

1. originallyA lover of wisdom.

   Antonyms: misosopher

2. A student of philosophy.
3. A scholar or expert engaged in or contributing to philosophical inquiry.

   Their playwrights knew better. Scandal, murder, hair-rending and railing against the gods sold tickets. King is not a philosopher. He knows how to sell tickets.

   2007, Harold Bloom, Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Stephen King

   1 more example

   Not much later—perhaps only two or three weeks later he has discovered meaning in them; he knows that they say "The cat sat on the hat." How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon.

   1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25

In a sentence

Not much later—perhaps only two or three weeks later he has discovered meaning in them; he knows that they say "The cat sat on the hat." How this happens no one really knows, despite the efforts of philosophers and psychologists over two and a half millennia to study the phenomenon.

1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25

Where it comes from

1. Ancient Greekφιλόσοφος
2. Latinphilosophus
3. Middle Frenchphilosophe
4. Middle Englishphilosophre
5. Englishphilosopher

From Middle English philosophre, from Anglo-Norman or Middle French philosophe, from Latin philosophus, from Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philósophos, literally “lover of wisdom”) + -er. Credited as having been coined by Pythagoras to describe himself. Displaced native Old English ūþwita.