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Philistines
meaning the ill-behaved and ignorant. The word so applied
arose in Germany from the Charlies or Philisters, who were in
everlasting collision with the students; and in these “town and gown
rows” identified themselves with the town, called in our universities
“the snobs.” Matthew Arnold, in the Cornhill Magazine, applied
the term Philistine to the middle class, which he says is “ignorant,
narrow-minded, and deficient in great ideas,” insomuch that the
middle-class English are objects of contempt in the eyes of
foreigners.
Philistines
(3 syl.). Earwigs and other insect tormentors are so called in
Norfolk. Bailifis, constables, etc.
“The Philistines are upon thee, Samson” (Judges xvi.).
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Philistines from Infoplease:
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