Both Uses of
philistine
in
Middlemarch
- In their conversation before marriage, Mr. Casaubon had often dwelt on some explanation or questionable detail of which Dorothea did not see the bearing; but such imperfect coherence seemed due to the brokenness of their intercourse, and, supported by her faith in their future, she had listened with fervid patience to a recitation of possible arguments to be brought against Mr. Casaubon's entirely new view of the Philistine god Dagon and other fish-deities, thinking that hereafter she should see this subject which touched him so nearly from the same high ground whence doubtless it had become so important to him.†
Chpt 2
- A philosopher fallen to betting is hardly distinguishable from a Philistine under the same circumstances: the difference will chiefly be found in his subsequent reflections, and Lydgate chewed a very disagreeable cud in that way.†
Chpt 7 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(philistine) a person who is uninterested in artistic and intellectual pursuits and values
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
As a proper noun, Philistines were a people who settled ancient Philistia around the 12th century BC (now the coast of Israel).