The word "ultracrepidarian" has Latin bits that literally mean "above (or beyond) the sole of the shoe."

It's from the fuller Latin phrase nē suprā crepidam sūtor jūdicāre, meaning "let the cobbler not judge above the sandal," or less literally, "don't make judgments outside of your own area of expertise."

That adage comes from the sixth volume of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, published around AD 77–79. Check out the story:

It was also a practice with [the artist Apelles], when he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by in some exposed place; while he himself, concealed behind the picture, would listen to the criticisms that were passed upon it; it being his opinion that the judgment of the public was preferable to his own, as being the more discerning of the two. It was under these circumstances, they say, that he was censured by a shoemaker for having represented the shoes with one shoe-string too little. The next day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected, thanks to his advice, began to criticize the leg; upon which Apelles, full of indignation, popped his head out, and reminded him that a shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes, a piece of advice which has equally passed into a proverbial saying.

That cracks me up, imagining Apelles popping out from behind his painting, yelling "Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!" 

Flash forward to around the year 1819: the English essayist William Hazlitt, possibly in a cranky mood, seized on that story and started using the word "ultracrepidarian" as a highly specific insult. That's how the word entered English dictionaries, but it's still extremely rare.

If you call something ultracrepidarian, you mean it's the kind that gives ignorant, unwanted criticism.

And if you call a person ultracrepidarian, you mean they're someone who gives ignorant, unwanted criticism.

Part of speech:

Both an adjective ("What an ultracrepidarian comment") and a noun for the person ("They're a couple of snooty ultracrepidarians").

Other forms: 

If you prefer, you can pop in a hyphen after the prefix. Here's Fitzedward Hall: "His assumption of judicial assessorship... is... altogether ultra-crepidarian."

If you need a noun, there's "ultracrepidizing," "ultracrepidation," and "ultracrepidarianism," all extremely rare.

There's also an extremely rare verb, "ultra-crepidate," which has been used intransitively, as in "Please refrain from ultra-crepidating." (It appears with the hyphen in the OED, but you could go ahead and drop it like with the other forms: "Sorry for ultracrepidating.")

And if you'd like to use the entire phrase as a comment, it's "Let the cobbler not judge above the sandal," or any of its variants, like "Let the cobbler stick to his last" or "A shoemaker should not judge beyond the shoe."

how to use it:

Carefully!

It's insulting, ultra-rare, very snobby-sounding, and very academic. I recommend using it only if you're going for laughs. It would make people cringe if you used it with a straight face, especially as an insult. And double-especially if you used it as an insult in an attempt to sound smart. Yikes.

So, if you're going for humor, like we'll see in both examples below, then you might talk about ultracrepidarian people and the ultracrepidarian things they say. Or you might refer to people as ultracrepidarians.

examples:

"Have you fallen victim to the flummery of an ultracrepidarian? ... We’re talking about grandiloquent words, delightful colloquialisms mostly from the 19th century. John Camden Hotten's 'Dictionary of Modern Slang,' published in 1859, described them as vulgarisms of an 'indulgent public.'"
— Max Harrison-Caldwell, New York Times, 9 November 2021

"My family unfairly uses words like finicky or inscrutable to describe me. And in response, I toss the [word] ultracrepidarian at them because they don't know what they're talking about."
— D. Watkins, Salon, 1 December 2023

has this page helped you understand "ultracrepidarian"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "ultracrepidarian" without saying "an ignorant critic" or "giving ignorant criticism."

try it out:

Fill in the blank: "I could give you my opinion on (something I know nothing about), but you'd have to forgive me for ultracrepidating."

Example: "I could give you my opinion on this Degas wax model, but you'd have to forgive me for ultracrepidating."

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

This month, our game is "Sarah In Dip a Day!"

I'll give you some song lyrics that contain a sophisticated word or phrase—but I'll swap it out for what you might hear if you didn't know that word or phrase. 

Your job is to find the spot where the lyrics quit making sense, then reinterpret those words as the artist actually wrote them. 

Here's an example:

"I'm on a one-way street,
My fall from grace complete,
But I feel that there's a hazard hanging over me.
But I take away the feeling that I can't see,
And now you say to me
Sarah in dip a day."
—Amaranthe

Here, the meaning breaks down at "Sarah in dip a day," which should read "Serendipity."

Try this one today:

"The tea leaves of trashed sheets
Dirty needles and sweets
Zero to heaven in seven
A lifetime, Nana second
All the sand in your glass
Is going by so fast."
—Jets to Brazil

If you need some clues, highlight the hidden white text below.
   1. The part that needs to be changed is..."Nana second"
   2. The term that's being sung means..."a billionth of a second, or more loosely, a very short length of time"
To see the answer, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. The opposite of an ULTRACREPIDARIAN could be

A. a voter who makes it a habit to fact-check what they hear.
B. a critic who limits their comments to their own area of expertise.
C. a child who refrains from judging a food until they've sampled it many times.

2. If you're the type to mutter random Latin adages, you might say "Nē suprā crepidam sūtor jūdicāre" when _____.

A. your heavy-metal bassist tries to critique your guitar solo.
B. your heavy-metal bassist tries to critique your interior décor.
C. your interior decorator tries to impose her sense of style on yours.

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. B Answer to the game question: "The tea leaves of trashed sheets Dirty needles and sweets Zero to heaven in seven A lifetime, nanosecond All the sand in your glass Is going by so fast." —Jets to Brazil

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.