Know-it-all
A know-it-all is colloquial as a person who expresses his or her opinion in an instructive and intrusive manner and thus gives the impression that he or she has more knowledge or education in certain (or all) matters or is better able to judge them than others. The environment takes offense at the behavior of such people - not so much because they are jealous of their (alleged or actual) knowledge , but because they teach others uninvited , but ignore the opinions , arguments and knowledge of other people. This creates an appearance of arrogance and a lack of tact . A coated is as unpleasant competitive behavior of people felt that discuss less of interest in the subject than to the right the keep sake ( "self-righteousness").
Related terms
The synonyms used are expressions such as "right-wing", " senior teacher" or "smart-ass", regionally also other expressions such as "G'scheidhaferl" (in Bavarian ). Related terms are also used as a verb or as an adjective , for example “schulmeistern”, “senior teacher”, “know-it-all”. Generic terms are for example "show-off" or " impostor ".
Use as a swear word
The expression describes the character of what is designated rather than an action and is to that extent a swear word . The mildest use of this swear word is to point out to the addressee that their communication behavior is perceived as unpleasant.
However, the term is also - and inappropriately - used to cut off a well-founded chain of arguments from the user as argumentum ad hominem .
Knowing better and being right than behavior
Know-it-alls are sometimes allowed to actually understand something of their subject. However, they would try to gain social status as a professional authority by demonstrating specialist knowledge . Your utterances are thus perceived as an attack on authority structures which are tacitly recognized by the other participants. The people around them therefore perceive the timing and content of the utterances as inappropriate to the social situation. The communicative goal of using the term know-it-all can therefore also be to issue a prohibition on thinking or even to establish taboos by secretly referring to existing authority structures .
In some cases, much of the knowledge is only faked. A factual argumentation, in the course of which they would inevitably have to have their alleged knowledge shown and checked, is then consistently evaded by rhetorical means such as sophisms and pseudo-arguments , so that the imposture can remain undetected for a long time. Often the person concerned is not even aware of it.
Similar to the fanatic , the environment comes up against the “know-it-all” especially when he seems stubborn and moralizing to hold onto his perceived opinion as preconceived.
Know-it-alls in literature, film and popular culture
A know-it-all is the main character in the fairy tale Meister Pfriem, first published by the Brothers Grimm in 1843 .
In Helge Schneider's film Texas - Doc Snyder holds the world in suspense (1993), a know-it-all (played by Ludger Pistor ) appears who, with his constant advice, gets on the nerves of Texas residents so much that they finally hang him up.
In Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris (2011), Inez is torn between the introverted male main character Gil and the dazzler Paul ( Michael Sheen ), who brags about his art knowledge .
The term is also thematized in the song Besserwisserboy from the album Noise by the band Die Ärzte .
Younger word history
“Know-it-all” is used as a German loan word in most North Germanic languages such as Sweden and Norway.
After the fall of the Wall , executives from the West German states were hired in many authorities and companies in the new federal states . In this context, the suitcase word Besserwessi was created in the following years , which also conveys the appeal and the content of the know-it-all.
See also
literature
- Wolfgang Ebert, Stephen Potter: Pottern. The fine art of having the last word . Kabel, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-8225-0261-8 .
Web links
- Steffen Buchert: The W files. In: Willis know-it-all. 2020 (“Gathering Knowledge That Nobody Needs”).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Autodidact model: Learning to learn on your own. Retrieved October 23, 2013 . ; Original English text: George Blecher: Learning to learn. Retrieved October 23, 2013 .