Pronounced: peck-SNIH-fee-uhn, adj
Notes: I recognized the word, but couldn’t properly define it
Yesterday’s word
The word ultracrepidarian means, as an adjective, “giving opinions beyond one’s area of expertise”. As a noun, it means “one who gives opinions beyond one’s area of expertise”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1800s
Background / Comments
Our word has an interesting story behind the word. Our word came from the Latin words ultra (beyond) and crepidarious (shoemaker), which came from crepida (sandal). How did a shoemaker get into our word? Thus the story: In ancient Greece, a famous painter named Apelles would display his paintings and then hide behind them to listen to the comments. One day a cobbler came by and noted that the sole of a shoe was not painted correctly. Apelles heard this and corrected the painting; the cobbler was emboldened by this and begin to comment on other parts of the painting, but the artist stopped him by stating “Ne sutor ultra crepidam” [Shoemaker, not above the sandal], meaning he should stick to what he knew. There is a temptation in all of us to be an ultracrepidarian.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 