philosophe

[ fil-uh-sof, fil-uh-zof; French fee-law-zawf ]

noun

, plural phil·o·sophes [fil, -, uh, -sofs, fil-, uh, -, zofs, fee-law-, zawf].

1. any of the popular French intellectuals or social philosophers of the 18th century, as Diderot, Rousseau, or Voltaire.
2. a philosophaster.

Word History and Origins

Origin of philosophe¹

Borrowed into English from French around 1770–80

Example Sentences

The first work was dedicated to Voltaire, and was received by the old philosophe with much favour.

From Project Gutenberg

The book pretended to be an elaboration of Dumarsais' essay on the Philosophe published in the Nouvelles liberts de penser, 1750.

From Project Gutenberg

Or un crivain, un pote, un philosophe, un homme des rgions intellectuelles n'a qu'une patrie: sa langue.

From Project Gutenberg

In true Martinism, the significance of the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order.

From Project Gutenberg

Such are the memorable quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns, and the philosophe idea of perfectibility and human progress.

From Project Gutenberg