Learn English – What do you call someone who does not appreciate a beautiful garden

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I know there is a word for this kind of person, but I can't remember it. What kind of person would buy a house with a beautiful garden in the back, and replace it with grass?

A lush garden with statues; a koi pond; fountains; lanai benches; all kinds of flowers that attract hummingbirds; flowering trees; trellised vines.

Only someone who did not have a well-developed sense of beauty, someone who had no aesthetic sensibilities whatsoever… there has to be a word for this kind of person.

Ingrate doesn't quite cover it. Neither does ignoramus.

Best Answer

One possibility.

philistine
/ˈfɪlɪstʌɪn/

noun: philistine; plural noun: philistines

  1. a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.
    I am a complete philistine when it comes to paintings

adjective: philistine

  1. hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts.
    a philistine government

Origin

early 19th century: from Philistine, originally with reference to a confrontation between university students and townspeople in Jena, Germany, in the late 17th century; a sermon on the conflict quoted ‘the Philistines are upon you’ (Judges 16), which led to an association between the townspeople and those hostile to culture.

Oxford Dictionaries

Also - barbarian - a brutish or uncultured person.

EDIT

I notice that others have suggested visigoth and boeotian respectively. I don't think either of these have much force in English. They carry no association with brutishness for most of us. Philistine and barbarian however will be recognised by any literate person.

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