Now this is strange. Webster 1913
says that if something is sophisticated, it is 'not genuine' or 'adulterated'. Yet when we talk of 'sophistication' nowadays, we think of complexity
. The word's root is from the Greek
for 'wise', sophos
, which then gave rise to 'sophist
', a wise man, skilled in elaborate arguments - this word also refers to a specific group of ancient 'natural philosopher
s' that Plato
believed simply argued for the sake of it. Hence, sophistry
becomes the phenomenon whereby someone sufficiently articulate
can construct a convincing argument
for something that may in fact be completely false. A dictionary definition of sophistry
is 'a plausible but fallacious
argument'. So from 'wise man', we have 'deliberately false argument' (from dictionary.com).
The verb 'to sophisticate' came to English via Latin (sophisticare) and meant 'to adulterate' and was applied to traders who would add cheap substances to their goods to bulk them out (such as adding floor sweepings to tobacco). Very many goods were sophisticated in Victorian London.
Our present usage of the word comes (apparently) from the change in the meaning 'unsophisticated' from something that is genuine and unadulterated to natural, unspoiled and naive. Hence its opposite, sophisticated, came to mean worldly-wise, subtle and complex. From the 1950s it was applied to scientific theories and technology, and has, one could say, come full circle from the original root's meaning.
Thanks to http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-sop1.htm