Word of the Day

Tuesday July 21, 2009

sardonic [sar-DON-ik]

adjective

Scornful, mocking; disdainfully or ironically humorous.

Topol seemed to feed off the room's positive response, and he became more and more animated, if not a bit of a ham. He conveyed his character's sardonic wit with endearing mannerisms and facial expressions.

Kathy L Greenberg, "'Fiddler' is a worthy tradition", Tampa Tribune, Apr 30, 2009
Three landscapes in a row provide a chance to compare the rocky, realistic sea cliffs of Philip Pearlstein (best known for his nudes), the laid-back sun-blasted California cool of Robert Bechtle's "Ocean Avenue" and the folksy yet sardonic charm of Texas artist David Bates' "Evening Storm," a lighthouse on a harbor with shrimp boats in a scene that is probably somewhere on the Gulf Coast.

Dan R Goddard, "Out of the office", San Antonio Express-News, Apr 12, 2009
As I alighted on the pavement at my destination, two youths emerged from the door of the establishment carrying an iron cylinder, which, with some trouble, they hoisted into a waiting motor-car. An elderly man was at their heels scolding and directing in a creaky, sardonic voice.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930) A British author most noted for his stories about Sherlock Holmes. The Poison Belt (1913)

Origin of the Word

Sardonic, approximately 1638, derives from French sardonique , from Latin sardonius, from Greek sardonios "of bitter or scornful (laughter)," altered from Homeric sardanios because the Greeks believed that eating a certain plant they called sardonion (literally "plant from Sardinia," see Sardinia) caused facial convulsions resembling those of sardonic laughter.