sardonic

Definition

Scornfully mocking or cynical.

Etymology

From French sardonique, from Latin sardonius, from Ancient Greek σαρδόνιος (sardónios), alternative form of σαρδάνιος (sardánios, “bitter or scornful laughter”), which is often cited as deriving from the Sardinian plant (Ranunculus sardous or possibly Oenanthe crocata), known as either σαρδάνη (sardánē) or σαρδόνιον (sardónion). When eaten, it would cause the eater's face to contort in a look resembling scorn (generally followed by death). It might also be related to σαίρω (saírō, “I grin”). The related term sardoin, as gentilic, is ultimately derived from σάρδιον (sárdion) from Σάρδεις (Sárdeis), referring to Sardis in Lydia or Sart in Manisa, Turkey; other sources reference Sardonian from Σαρδόνιος (Sardónios, “from Sardinia”).

Example Sentences

• "He distances himself from people with his nasty, sardonic laughter."
• "[Q]Uivering fears, Heart-tearing cares, / Anxious ſighs, Untimely tears, / Fly, fly to the Courts; / Fly to fond worldings ſports, / Where ſtrain’d Sardonick ſmiles are cloſing ſtill, / And grief is forc’d to laugh againſt her will; / Where mirth’s but mummery, / And ſorrows only real be."
• "At the opening of thoſe doors, what a ſight it muſt be to behold the plenipotentiaries of royal impotence, in the precedency which they will intrigue to obtain, and which will be granted to them according to the ſeniority of their degradation, ſneaking into the Regicide preſence, and with the reliques of the ſmile which they had dreſſed up, for the levee of their maſters, ſlill flickering on their curled lips, preſenting the faded remains of their courtly graces, to meet the ſcornful, ferocious, ſardonic grin of a bloody ruffian, who, whilſt he is receiving their homage, is meaſuring them with his eye, and fitting to their ſize the ſlider of his Guillotine!"