Ultracrepidarian
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("not beyond the shoe") is a
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
expression used to tell others not to pass judgment beyond their expertise.


Origin

The phrase is recorded in Book 35 of
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
's ''
Natural History Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
'' as ("Let the
cobbler Cobbler(s) may refer to: *A person who repairs shoes * Cobbler (food), a type of pie Places * The Cobbler, a mountain located near the head of Loch Long in Scotland * Mount Cobbler, Australia Art, entertainment and media * ''The Cobbler' ...
not judge beyond the ") and ascribed to the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
Apelles Apelles of Kos (; ; fl. 4th century BC) was a renowned Painting, painter of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom much of modern scholars' knowledge of this artist is owed (''Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Historia'' 35.36.79–97 and '' ...
of
Kos Kos or Cos (; ) is a Greek island, which is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 37,089 (2021 census), making ...
. Supposedly, Apelles would put new paintings on public display and hide behind them to hear and act on their reception.. On one occasion, a
shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...
(Latin ) noted that one of the crepides in a painting had the wrong number of straps and was so delighted when he found the error corrected the next day that he started in on criticizing the legs. Indignant, Apelles came from his hiding place and admonished him to confine his opinions to the shoes. Pliny then states that since that time it had become
proverb A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...
ial.


History

The expression became current again during the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, which featured intense interest in both
painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
and
Classical Antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...
.
Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...
's ''
Adages A saying is any concise expression that is especially memorable because of its meaning or style. A saying often shows a wisdom or cultural standard, having different meanings than just the words themselves. Sayings are categorized as follows: * ...
'' included the form .
Richard Taverner Richard Taverner (1505 – 14 July 1575) was an English author and religious reformer. He is best known for his Bible translation, commonly known as Taverner's Bible but originally titled The Most Sacred Bible. This holy scripture, contain ...
translated this into English as "Let not the shoemaker go beyond hys shoe", which became "Cobler keepe your
last A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts come in many styles and sizes, depending on the exact job they are designed for. Common variations ...
" in the 1616 revised edition of
John Withals John Withals (d. ''circa'' 1555) was an English lexicographer. Withals was born and raised in London. Originally a schoolmaster, he was a contemporary of Peter Levens and Richard Huloet Richard Huloet was a 16th-century English lexicographer. H ...
's ''Shorte Dictionarie for Yonge Beginners'' and ultimately . The same idea is also proverbial in Danish (),
Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...
(),
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
(), and
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
() andslightly modified in
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
(, "Judge not, pal, above the boot"), after
Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
's poetic retelling of the legend, and in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
(, "Shoemaker, to your shoes") and in Slovene (''Le čevlje sodi naj kopitar'', "let the cobbler judge the shoes only"), from
France Prešeren France Prešeren () (3 December 1800 – 8 February 1849) was a 19th-century Romantic Slovene poet whose poems have been translated into many languages.
's poem depicting the story.
Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
ridiculed the idea: Ne sutor ultra crepidam' – this nec plus ultra of handicraft wisdom became sheer nonsense, from the moment the watchmaker
Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
invented the steam-engine, the barber Arkwright the throstle, and the working-jeweller Fulton the steamship."


Ultracrepidarian

An ultracrepidarianfrom ''ultra-'' ("beyond") and ''crepidarian'' ("things related to shoes")is a person considered to have ignored this advice and to be offering opinions they know nothing about. It is first attested in the English essayist
William Hazlitt William Hazlitt (10 April 177818 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary criticism, literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. He is now considered one of the greatest critics and essayists in the history ...
's 1819 open "Letter to
William Gifford William Gifford (April 1756 – 31 December 1826) was an English critic, editor and poet, famous as a satire, satirist and controversialist. Life Gifford was born in Ashburton, England, Ashburton, Devon, to Edward Gifford and Elizabeth Cain. ...
", the editor of the ''
Quarterly Review The ''Quarterly Review'' was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967. It was referred to as ''The London Quarterly Review'', as reprinted by Leonard Scott, f ...
'': "You have been well called an Ultra-Crepidarian critic."; the same form is seen in an unpublished "Reply to Z", p. 9. The editor of Hazlitt's writings, however, offers that it might have been coined by
Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764 ...
instead. It was picked up four years later in Hazlitt's friend
Leigh Hunt James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet. Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centre ...
's 1823 satire ''Ultra-Crepidarius: A Satire on William Gifford''. Occasionally the word ultracrepidarianismthe act or general practice of speaking beyond one's knowledgewas used similarly later.Gregory Bergman, (2006) ''Isms: From Autoeroticism to Zoroastrianism (An Irreverent Reference).'' Adams Media


See also

*
List of Latin phrases This is a list of Wikipedia articles of Latin phrases and their translation into English. To view all phrases on a single, lengthy document, see: List of Latin phrases (full). Lists of pages * List of Latin phrases (A) * List of Latin phrases ( ...
*
Dunning–Kruger effect The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities. It was first described by the psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999. Some researcher ...
*
Credentialism Educational inflation, also known as credential inflation refers to the increasing overqualification required by employers beyond that which the occupations actually require. A good example of credential inflation is the decline in the value of ...
*
Domain knowledge Domain knowledge is knowledge of a specific discipline or field in contrast to general (or domain-independent) knowledge. The term is often used in reference to a more general discipline—for example, in describing a software engineer who has ge ...
*
Metallic Metals Act The Metallic Metals Act was a fictional piece of legislation included in a 1947 American opinion survey conducted by Sam Gill and published in the March 14, 1947, issue of ''Tide'' magazine. When given four possible replies, 70% of respondents cla ...
*
Nobel disease Nobel disease or Nobelitis is an informal term for the embrace of strange or scientifically unsound ideas by some Nobel Prize winners, usually later in life. It has been argued that the effect results, in part, from a tendency for Nobel winners to ...
*
Subject-matter expert A subject-matter expert (SME) is a person who has accumulated great knowledge in a particular field or topic and this level of knowledge is demonstrated by the person's degree, licensure, and/or through years of professional experience with the su ...


Notes


References


Citations


Bibliography

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External links

*
Ultracrepidrianism
' on
World Wide Words Michael Brian Quinion (born ) is a British etymologist and writer. He ran World Wide Words, a website devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied physical sciences and after which he joined BBC radio as a s ...
({{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924010903/http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ult1.htm, date=24 September 2022) Latin literary phrases Latin words and phrases