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“sceptic”
septic; skeptic, sceptic; styptic
septic (SEP tik) (adjective)
1. Characterized by infection or putrefaction: Because it was not treated promptly, the wound on Jane's foot became septic.
2. Referring to the drainage system for a tank holding sewage and other waste: The roots of the tree had clogged the septic tank and the city engineers needed to be called to clear it out.
2. Referring to the drainage system for a tank holding sewage and other waste: The roots of the tree had clogged the septic tank and the city engineers needed to be called to clear it out.
skeptic, sceptic (SKEP tik) (noun)
An individual who typically questions knowledge or reserves judgment on a topic: My friend Mark is a skeptic when it comes to reading certain articles in the local newspaper.
styptic (STIP tik) (noun)
A substance that tends to act as an astringent: When he was learning to shave, the young man kept a tube of styptic close by in case he cut himself with the razor.
The environmental sceptic was observed poking around in the septic trash in a park where he injured his thumb which required a styptic application in order to prevent his thumb from becoming septic.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group S; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 3)
skeptic, sceptic
1. Someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs.
2. A person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.
2. Any one who maintains a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements, or the character of others.
3. Someone who doubts the truth of a religion; especially, Christianity, or of important elements of it.
4. When capitalized, a member of a philosophical school of ancient Greece, the earliest group of which consisted of Pyrrho and his followers, who maintained that real knowledge of things is impossible.
5. Any later thinker who doubts or questions the possibility of real knowledge of any kind.
6. Etymology: from 1587, "member of an ancient Greek school that doubted the possibility of real knowledge"; from French sceptique, from Latin scepticus, and previously from Greek skeptikos; literally, "inquiring, reflective", the name taken by the disciples of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho (c.360-c.270 B.C.E.), from skeptesthai, "to reflect, to look, to view".
2. A person who questions the validity or authenticity of something purporting to be factual.
2. Any one who maintains a doubting attitude, as toward values, plans, statements, or the character of others.
3. Someone who doubts the truth of a religion; especially, Christianity, or of important elements of it.
4. When capitalized, a member of a philosophical school of ancient Greece, the earliest group of which consisted of Pyrrho and his followers, who maintained that real knowledge of things is impossible.
5. Any later thinker who doubts or questions the possibility of real knowledge of any kind.
6. Etymology: from 1587, "member of an ancient Greek school that doubted the possibility of real knowledge"; from French sceptique, from Latin scepticus, and previously from Greek skeptikos; literally, "inquiring, reflective", the name taken by the disciples of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho (c.360-c.270 B.C.E.), from skeptesthai, "to reflect, to look, to view".
This entry is located in the following unit:
scopo-, scop-, scept-, skept-, -scope-, -scopy, -scopia, -scopic, -scopist
(page 26)