Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
worldwise. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
worldwise, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
worldwise in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
worldwise you have here. The definition of the word
worldwise will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
worldwise, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English worldwis, from Old English woruldwīs (“worldwise, worldly-wise, learned”), from Proto-West Germanic ; compare Middle Dutch wereltwijs (Dutch wereldwijs), Old High German weraltwīs. By surface analysis, world + wise.
Adjective
worldwise (comparative more worldwise, superlative most worldwise)
- Knowledgeable about the world; worldly-wise; sophisticated; experienced.
1671, Basilius Valentinus, chapter 3, in Daniel Cable, transl., Of Natural and Supernatural Things, London: Moses Pitt, page 50:Those who are highly conceited, illuminated, and world-wise, hate, envy, scandalize, defame and persecute this Mystery to the utmost Rind, or innermost Kernel, which hath its beginning out of the Center […]
1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 12, in The White Company, London: Smith, Elder & Co., published 1909, page 141:An older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by her varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resentment at all constraint and authority.
1919, Saki, “The Purple of the Balkan Kings”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, page 281:Luttpold Wolkenstein, financier and diplomat on a small, obtrusive, self-important scale, sat in his favoured café in the world-wise Habsburg capital, confronted with the Neue Freie Presse and the cup of cream-topped coffee and attendant glass of water that a sleek-headed piccolo had just brought him.
1994, U.S. News & World Report:Experience that’s worldwide and worldwise. It’s a difference that’s helped us make friends with a world full of travelers.
Derived terms