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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 2001 (DOST Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Sophistication, -cioun, n. [Late ME and e.m.E. sophisticac(i)oun (c1400), sophistication (1540-1), F. sophistication (c1340 in Larousse), med. L. sophisticatiōn-.]

1. a. Sophistry, fallacious reasoning. b. A sophistic or fallacious argument.a. 1490 Irland Mir. II 104/34 (see Sophistic adj. 2).b. 1563 Misc. Wodrow. Soc. 187.
That the people of God … sould not be langer abusit with his captious sophisticationes

2. Adulteration (of a commodity). 1662 Reg. Privy C. 3 Ser. I 198.
The proclamation anent the sophistication of wynes was … read 1677 Edinb. B. Rec. X 292.
The insufficiencie of confeits … as to the sophistication of there stufe in the composer 1681 Stair Inst. i ix §10.
But the sophistication of ware, or concealing of the insufficiency thereof, was held fraudulent and reparable 1681 Stair Inst. i ix § 11.