Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Spelt cynicism as Sinicism.
The word’s got to begin with Sin.

3 comments:

Small Routines said...
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Small Routines said...

Yes. Yes. Yes!
But I suppose the Cynics did have good intentions to begin with, though they carried things to the extreme.

Did you know that they disdained baths? Now does that make them interesting?!

If I remember correctly, that's why they were called Cynics - cynic meaning dog in Greek, the reference being to Diogenes who almost lived like one, happily bath-free among other things! Forget the other story behind the name, must be here -

http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cynics.htm

Swapnil said...

I was talking about the modern English meaning of the word.
The first one.

cynicism
n.
1. An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
2. A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act: “She arrived at a philosophy of her own, all made up of her private notations and cynicisms” (Henry James).
3. Cynicism The beliefs of the ancient Cynics.