Word.ws English Dictionary

Timonist

/ˈtaɪmənɪst/

Timonist noun: a sort of bitter misanthrope related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.

Noun

Timonist (plural Timonists)

  1. A sort of bitter misanthrope related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
    • Yet was he not … such a Timonist, but hee would familiarly conuerse with his friends. [sic]1590, Robert Greene, Greene's Mourning Garment
    • I did it to retyre me from the vvorld; / And turne my Muſe into a Timoniſt, […]1601 (first performance), Thomas Dekker, Satiro-mastix. Or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet. […], London: […] [Edward Allde] for Edward White, […], published 1602, →OCLC, signature L3, recto

Adjective

Timonist (comparative more Timonist, superlative most Timonist)

  1. Of a form of bitter misanthropy related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
    • Marston poses as the Timonist malcontent satirist ready to excoriate the world for its follies.1988, Maurice Charney, Hamlet's fictions
    Synonyms:
    Timonean, Timonian

Synonyms of Timonist

Forms of Timonist

Noun
pluralTimonists
Adjective
comparativemore Timonist
superlativemost Timonist

Origin of Timonist

From Timon + -ist, after the 5th-century-BCE person Timon of Athens (as described by Plutarch, Lucian, and Aristophanes). Used by Robert Greene in his Greene's Mourning Garment (1590). (William Shakespeare's play Timon of Athens is usually estimated c. 1607 and would not have influenced Greene; however, some consider the play could be one of Shakespeare's earliest, and could then have been Greene's source.)

Questions about Timonist

What does Timonist mean?
Timonist means a sort of bitter misanthrope related to Timonism, like Timon of Athens.
What part of speech is Timonist?
Timonist can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Timonist?
Timonist is pronounced /ˈtaɪmənɪst/.
What is the plural of Timonist?
The plural of Timonist is Timonists.

Words near Timonist in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Timonist (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: “Timonist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/timonist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.