Other forms: philistines
A philistine is somebody hostile or indifferent to art and learning. An absolute philistine, philistine tastes, call him a philistine.
It is a snobbish insult and usually reveals as much about the speaker as the target. The Philistines were a real people of the ancient Levant, and the modern sense came through German student slang, where a philistine was anybody outside the university.
1nounphilistineSomebody hostile or indifferent to art and learning.
“He's a total philistine who thinks museums are a waste of money.”
philistine is an insult.
PHIListine → he would FILL it with anything but art
He walks through the gallery in four minutes, says he could fill the whole place with something better, and asks where the food is.
hooks ontofill
From the Philistines of the Bible, through German student slang for a townsman outside the university.
Latin
Philistaeus
German
Philister — person from ancient Philistia; (figurative, dated) person not associated with a university; (figurative) person who lacks appreciation of or is antagonistic towards art or culture
English, today
philistine
Built from
From Philistine. The noun is derived from Philistine, influenced by philister, Philister (“(historical) in German universities: person not associated with the university; person who lacks appreciation of or is antagonistic towards art or culture”), from German Philister (“person from ancient Philistia; (figurative, dated) person not associated with a university; (figurative) person who lacks appreciation of or is antagonistic towards art or culture”), from Latin Philistaeus, Philisteus (compare Philistinus and see further at Philistine) + German -er. The figurative senses of the German word are often said to have derived from a 1693 sermon by the ecclesiastical superintendent Georg Heinrich Götze (1667–1728) on the passage “Philister über dir, Simson!” (“The Philistines are upon you, Samson!”; Judges 16:9, 12, 14, and 20) at the funeral of a student from the University of Jena in Jena, Thuringia, Germany, who had died as the result of a town and gown dispute (that is, one between the townspeople and university students), but the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the word was already used in Jena in these senses in 1687.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA