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Main Entry: cyn·icCaptious?
Pronunciation: 'si-nik
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French or Latin, Middle French cynique, from Latin cynicus, from Greek kynikos, literally, like a dog, from kyn-, kyOn dog
Date: circa 1564
1 capitalized : an adherent of an ancient Greek school of philosophers who held the view that virtue is the only good and that its essence lies in self-control and independence
2 : a faultfinding captious critic; especially : one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest
A professor in linguistics was giving a lecture and observed for the sake of his students, "In English, a double-negative implies a positive statement, while in Russian, the double-negative cancels itself out of meaning, implying a null-statement. However, in no language does a double-positive imply a negative.And apostic? This obscure word has both religious and nautical meanings, but the author coined it independently when he needed a nom d'Internet that expressed a sense of detachment. (From the Greek, the prefix apo, away from, followed by stat, to stand, with general ending ic, like or having the nature of) The full form, apostatic, is contracted to apos'tic.In the back of the room, a captious student mumbled sarcastically, "Yeah, right...."
Cyn-O-Mania (for those who live in cyn)
The American Cynic Newsletter Collected tidbits from elsewhere
The Cynic's Sanctuary Almost respectable
The Skeptic's Dictionary A skeptic is a cynic that knows what he's doing
More to come (yeah, right....)
Make your cynical suggestions to
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