Nuts and Bolts: sophomoric stuff.

 We don't really have sophomores in Britain, but in the USA they're students in their second year of either High School or University.

This term has given rise to the idea of a sophomore argument, which is one that's presented in a conceited and confident way but reveals itself to be ignorant and immature. 

Then there's sophomore humour, which might be in dubious taste, or might just be silly (which means there's nothing actually wrong with sophomore humour), and sophomore work, which often describes the second published work of a creative artist.

Sadly, there often is quite a lot wrong with these.

Term To Consider Today: sophomoric. This word emerged in the 1600s. The American Webster dictionary suggests it's a combination of the Greek words sophos, wise, and mōros, foolish; but Collins suggests it comes from sophumer, from sophum, from sophisma, which is a clever trick, from sophizesthai, to use clever deceit.