timonist
/ˈtaɪmənɪst/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A sort of bitter misanthrope related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
adj
Of a form of bitter misanthropy related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
Example Sentences
- "Yet was he not … such a Timonist, but hee would familiarly conuerse with his friends. [sic]"
- "I did it to retyre me from the vvorld; / And turne my Muſe into a Timoniſt, […]"
- "Cynicism is often contrasted with "Timonism" (cf. Shakespeare's Timon of Athens). Cynics saw what people could be & were angered by what they had become; Timonists felt humans were hopelessly stupid & uncaring by nature & so saw no hope for change."
- "Marston poses as the Timonist malcontent satirist ready to excoriate the world for its follies."
Etymology
From Timon + -ist, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes). Used by Robert Greene in his Greene's Mourning Garment (1590). (William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens is usually estimated c. 1607 and would not have influenced Greene; however, some consider the play could be one of Shakespeare's earliest, and could then have been Greene's source.)