Word.ws English Dictionary

Timonism

UK/ˈtaɪmənɪzəm/

Timonism noun: a form of bitter misanthropy, a despair leading to hatred or contemptuous rejection of mankind, like Timon of Athens.

timonism: a form of bitter misanthropy, a despair leading to hatred or contemptuous rejection of mankind,...
Image: engraving by Isaac Taylor (1730–1807) after painting by, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Timonism (countable and uncountable, plural Timonisms)

  1. A form of bitter misanthropy, a despair leading to hatred or contemptuous rejection of mankind, like Timon of Athens.
    • This most cruel betrayal led him to Timonism.
    • His "Timonism" scarcely shows itself, except against the priesthood, for which he has very little respect.1840, in The Westminster Review, September
  2. A bitter or cynical utterance or behavior, in the manner of Timon of Athens.
    • Pay no attention to his Timonisms; it's a pose.
    • Thus he ran on carelessly in this cynical vein; but I, after a time, paid no attention to his Timonisms, being taken up with the spectacle of a crowd in the street surrounding a carriage.1891, Fergus Hume, When I Lived in Bohemia: Papers Selected from the Portfolio of Peter ---, Esq, repr. Tait, sons & company, 1892, p. 150 at Google Books

Examples of Timonism in a sentence

  • Then how could it be otherwise, than that an incipient Timonism should slide into Pierre, when he considered all the disgraceful inferences to be derived from such a fact.1852, Herman Melville, Pierre, chapter XVII "Young America in Literature", part III, online version
  • Cynicism is often contrasted with "Timonism" (cf.1988 January, Paul Ollswang, "Cynicism: A Series of Cartoons on a Philosophical Theme", page B at official site; repr. in The Best Comics...

Forms of Timonism

pluralTimonisms

Origin of Timonism

From Timon + -ism, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes), possibly by way of William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens (c. 1607). Used in the Westminster Review (maybe after the earlier Timonist) in an 1840 review. Erroneously attributed to Herman Melville, who popularized it later in 1852.

Words formed from Timonism

Questions about Timonism

What does Timonism mean?
Timonism means a form of bitter misanthropy, a despair leading to hatred or contemptuous rejection of mankind, like Timon of Athens.
How do you use Timonism in a sentence?
Then how could it be otherwise, than that an incipient Timonism should slide into Pierre, when he considered all the disgraceful inferences to be derived from such a fact.
What part of speech is Timonism?
Timonism is a noun.
How do you pronounce Timonism?
Timonism is pronounced /ˈtaɪmənɪzəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of Timonism?
The plural of Timonism is Timonisms.

Words near Timonism in the dictionary

  1. Timonians
  2. Timonise
  3. Timonised
  4. Timonises
  5. Timonising
  6. Timonism
  7. Timonisms
  8. Timonist
  9. Timonists
  10. Timonium
  11. Timonization

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Timonism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Timonism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/timonism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.